Java Web Framework Sweet Spots - by Matt Raible http://www.virtuas.com/articles/webframework-sweetspots.html
I selected relevant responses by the following representatives: JSF, Jacob Hookom Seam, Gavin King Spring MVC, Rob Harrop Spring Web Flow, Rob Harrop and Keith Donald Stripes, Tim Fennell Struts Action 1, Don Brown WebWork, Patrick Lightbody Wicket, Eelco Hillenius Their notes on Struts, WebWork and action-type frameworks in general: --------------------------------------------------------------------- While promoting JSF, Jacob agrees that for read-only or not-so-stateful applications an action framework might suit better. Struts is his choice primarily because of wide acceptance. He also thinks that WebWork (future Struts Action 2) is better in practice. Gavin thinks that Struts was "innovative in its time but has failed to reinvent itself. It was always way, way too overly complex to bind model data to the view. The course-grained event model was OK at the time, but fine-grained events are a better approach today. [WebWork is] Struts++, missed its time. XWork was some great thinking at the time, but it is dated now." Spring MVC and Spring Web Flow: these guys PR too much about their own stuff. Even when asked to describe situations where their product might not be the best solution, or when directly asked about experience with other frameworks, they still plug their product in again and again. Tim says: "I found very little to like about Struts. I spent a lot more time working around issues with Struts than I gained in productivity from using Struts. WebWork appears to be much higher quality, but its documentation is pretty sparse, making it hard to ramp up quickly or to find out how to use advanced features." Patrick was refreshingly direct and honest, pointing out current issues with WebWork and good features of other frameworks. He did not mention that Struts sucks. Guess who did? See below. Eelco does not like all action-type frameworks: "Model 2 frameworks suck. I used them for years, ... but I totally lost my belief in them. Model 2 frameworks are highly procedural, and programmers don't learn object orientation properly from using them. I would rather hire someone who coded Swing for a few years than someone who primarily worked with model 2 frameworks because I would expect the Swing guy to be a better coder in general. Working with model 2 frameworks means going from hack to hack and back again, and the amount of copy 'n paste code it generally results in is something that makes any serious coder sad. If I had to pick any model 2 framework, I would probably pick Stripes, which at least got some of the most annoying aspects of model 2 out of the way." Michael. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]