GWT with its powerful set of features, make Large Scale Ajax software development possible.
from Java to JS compiler, all the optimization, code splitting, MVP, Guice and Gin, new data binding features, and one can go on and on ... However one important aspect seem to be neglected for years and not aknowledged by GWT team is the absense of a powerful Widget library. The widget set provided by GWT is very basic, and does not include many many widgets needed to make more complex UI interaction possible. Drag and Drop (Tree for example or Grid, Filter), Calendar, Combo Box, Complex grids (sort, filter, etc) to name a few. All the effort that goes into crafting a well architected and tested app goes unnoticed unfortunately cause its about First Impression most of the time ! if you invest hours and hours to get the basic browser history working, all the design for testability etc, but dont have a pretty looking front-end, its just not fair ! We often see posts here and on other forums from developers requiring more advanced widgets to develop their apps. there are alternatives out there, SmartGWT, Ext-GWT. They are great, lots of eye candy, but they encourage a more desk-top style apps on the web, which goes against Google best practices that says not to turn web apps into desktop-like apps). also third-party libraries dont fit well with MVP, API inconsistency, they are also are hard to customize beyond the provided themes. and some of the other open-source ones are too experimental. You can argue that well go create your own. but that does not make any sense at all. if GWT is for Large Scale applications, does it make sense that developers spend their time experimenting with where to position close- icon on a Tab ?! or adding maximize/minimize to a dialog ? what about these ubuquitous Callout Tooltips ? or implement drag and drop on a tree which is going to be a maintanance nightmare down the road ?! each project creating their own in-house widget library ?! and test it ? an alternative could be to use GWT along-side JQuery/YUI, because there are hundreds if not thousands of variation for each plugin you can think out there. but does it make sense to do all the optimization in GWT, only to load additional JS Libraries to use plugins on top of them? Google acquired Instantiations(GWT Designer) a while ago, which was great news, although many are waiting for them to add UiBinder feature(still in beta), it was a great move by Google. I was thinking if Google Team is busy with the architectural aspect of GWT, why not invest in or acquire a company to work on a powerful and complete Widget Library to put others to shame. (after all its Google, right ?!) I can understand why they have not done this so far, because Google have always been about simplicity and investing in more bleeding-edge technologies, but they can acquire others to do this for GWT community ! The GWT team have done a superb job in creating this powerful Toolkit, and been so generous in sharing it with us. for that i am very grateful. But a boy can dream ! All I Want for Christmas is a powerful Widget Library ! a mix between Ext (Application-Oriented) and JQuery plugins (Designer oriented/eye candy/effects) ! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To post to this group, send email to google-web-tool...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-web-toolkit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en.
