Elemental really is two things. Firstly, a set of collections that have very little overhead compared to the java emulated classes. They are created based on JSO objects and are about as performant as you can get. Secondly, a generated set of JSO mappings to ALL webkit/chrome exposed javascript api's. These are not hand created like the rest of GWT. Instead they are created by a python script that runs against the browser IDL defined interfaces. So elemental can be kept up to date with the bleeding edge of the web more easily.
So you are asking what the point of this is? If you want maximum performing collections then you can use the new ones provided in elemental. If you want to write a GWT program with the minimum possible footprint then using the JSO elemental bindings will provide this. In addition, if you want to access some part of the browser api not covered by GWT then elemental will provide a way to do that. It is mainly targeted for writing code for modern html 5 browsers. I think the idea is to make it a bit more general than webkit/chrome in the future. On Monday, July 9, 2012 6:34:13 PM UTC-4, mp31415 wrote: > > I'm trying to make some sense from that Elemental feature. But I'm > definitely missing something. On 2.5 main page there is a link to a brief > article about Elemental which really does not add much. GWT team is > notoriously bad on documentation side and it's not getting any better. Just > please don't tell me to shut up and use something else. It's impossible to > see the big picture without some background information, like what was > missing before, what real purpose of the feature is. It's very nice that we > can now call some latest API but what about the more trivial stuff that say > UiBinder was in charge so far? Or maybe it is not about UI but more about > better hiding JSO types? Or something totally different at all? > > It's not any better with all other features in fact, but right now my > gripe is about Elemental. > > I looked at the Collide project code. They reference elemental.* packages > all over the place and elemental classes carry copyright statement from > 2010. So is it new or just recently opened by Google? > > I mean we get some random pieces of information from GWT team which I have > a hard time stitching together. > And I didn't download yet 2.5 RC, as I prefer to understand things first, > before diving into some low-level details. > > Thanks. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-web-toolkit/-/zo9D8bBCrxsJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en.
