Hi Joseph
On 04/03/2012 08:34 AM, Joseph Lust wrote:
Alan,
Thanks as always for your courteous replies. I'm grateful for the
efforts the Google developers put into GWT, as any other enterprise
building such a framework would most certainly charge the Earth for it
while also crippling its functionality in exchange for customer
lock-in. Google just makes great software.
However, I work in a large enterprise where our GWT Community of
Practice group must make a case for why any new application should use
GWT. It is important to management to know the future of GWT and a
roadmap is how this is commonly done. While I don't personally think
GWT will suffer from the recent project pogroms at Google, a roadmap
and rough release schedule will lend greater confidence to others in
the stability and longevity of the framework needed before a company
is willing to build multi-million dollar projects with it.
Have you seen this thread on Google+?
https://plus.google.com/117487419861992917007/posts/6YWpsHpqMqZ
especially Ray Cromwell's comment about half-way down? Also Eric
Clayberg's - I suggest you read the whole thread, but I've copied and
pasted two comments which caught me eye.
<SNIP>
Ray Cromwell: "Many of Google's services are still being written in GWT
and won't change anytime soon, for example AdWords and AdSense, from
which Google derives the majority of their revenue, are written in GWT,
so given that fact alone, GWT will be around for a long time and
continue to be improved. The loss of Ray Ryan and Bob were a big set
back (unrelated to Dart), and we have people trying to get up to speed
on their contributions to maintain them, but honesty, we rely on many of
our top external users like Thomas Broyer and Stephan Haberman to fill
the gap until that time. (Thanks guys) Turnover is natural and happens
at all companies, and it's always rough.
The next release or two of GWT may include more core improvements than
the last few point releases of GWT so far, consider:
1) Compiler optimizations that reduce code by size by 30% uncompressed,
and 15% gzipped
2) SourceMap support and Source-Level Java debugging in Chrome (and
hopefully Firefox)
3) A "super draft mode" that can recompile many apps in under 10 seconds
and most under 5
4) New "to the metal" "modern browser" HTML bindings
5) Testing framework that makes GUI testing delightful
6) Incremental compile support to speed up production compiles
So code will be getting smaller, faster, easier to debug (in some
situations) and test, and compiles will go quicker. This reflects
somewhat the shift in GWT team composition, but as people ramp up on
other parts of the SDK (e.g. MVP stuff), I'm sure there will be improved
responsiveness to fixing bugs in that area as well.
Obviously, we want Dart to be a huge success, but even if it is, Java
isn't going away anytime soon. :)"
</SNIP>
<SNIP>
Eric Clayberg: "I can assure you that GWT is not in maintenance mode.
Not even close! Quite the contrary, GWT is very healthy, and the GWT
team continues to focus on making GWT a great choice for building
structured web applications now and in the future. If you have the need
to start a new web app project, GWT would be an excellent choice, and
there is no reason to avoid it. The GWT team is fully staffed, and we
have very ambitious plans for GWT's future. GWT is used by many large,
important projects within Google (and outside Google), and that is
unlikely to change any time soon."
<SNIP>
I accept that its not an official roadmap - but it seems to give a clear
indication of a continued commitment to developing GWT, albeit on a
slower scale than before. I shoudl add that I have no commercial
affliation with Google whatsoever, I just use GWT in a couple of
different projects in two different companies.
Alan
If GWT retains buy-in at Google, I don't understand why such planning
would be detrimental to the GWT team. As I see it, such public
planning will only drive more companies and startups to join the GWT
bandwagon.
Sincerely,
Joseph
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