[Building Sakai] Sakai GWT

Fri May 13 01:50:20 PDT 2011

I wasn't trying to start a holy war; there's enough of that going on 
already I'd say.

Over the years I've just got steadily tired of frameworks that try to 
abstract web development away. IMHO they tend to become maintenance 
burdens at the point when the original author gets bored or produces a 
more innovative approach. To be honest Trimpath is also looking a bit 
neglected by Google, so you could potentially place that in the same 
category.

If you are targeting a platform (ie: a browser) it just makes sense to 
me to learn its idiosyncrasies as it'll make you a better developer. 
Just my opinion, that's all.

Cheers,
Adrian.

On 13/05/2011 04:47, Thomas Amsler wrote:
> If you are not proficient in JavaScript but know Java, I would
> recommend GWT as well. It takes care of generating consistent and
> efficient JavaScript that works well across all modern browser.
>
> We use GWT quite heavily in gradebook2:
>
> https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib//gradebook2/trunk/
>
> I have also written a simple tool, SGS, that uses GWT:
>
> https://github.com/tamsler/sgs2/wiki
>
> Also, GWT has dramatically improved since v 2.x, using MVP, UI-Binder, etc.
>
> Best,
> -- Thomas
>
> On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Michael Wenk<mjwenk at ucdavis.edu>  wrote:
>> The beautiful part of GWT is that if you know java, awesome, but if
>> you known JS, great too.  You can inter operate GWT and JS very
>> easily.
>>
>> I too, do not want to engage in a technology holy war, but I find GWT
>> does an awesome job of taking complex processes and the code around
>> those and making it simple, small and fast.
>>
>> So GWT really gives you the best of both worlds, plus incredible debug
>> support in the IDE making development very fast.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 12:16 PM, Aaron Zeckoski<azeckoski at unicon.net>  wrote:
>>>> Also finding a good Javascript developer is a lot more difficult than finding a good
>>>> Java developer, at least here, in Montreal! That might also influence your
>>>> technological decision.
>>> As a general comment, I have found the opposite to be true (at least
>>> in the UK and the US though it seems true for international projects
>>> as well). It is part of the reason why OAE uses javascript for all
>>> frontend processing (the idea was that JS developers are far more
>>> common and that JS is easier to work with than Java). I'm not claiming
>>> this is true, just that it was believed to be the case in general.
>>>
>>> -AZ
>>>
>>>
>>> 2011/5/12 Remi Saias<remi.saias at hec.ca>:
>>>> Adrian, Mustansar,
>>>>
>>>> The affirmation that GWT won't help further down the line seems a bit too
>>>> broad to me.
>>>>
>>>> I don't want to enter into a religious fight about technology A being better
>>>> than technology B but I think that deciding to learn and use a technology
>>>> depends on more factors than those raised in this discussion (none actually,
>>>> except Sakai!).
>>>>
>>>> To provide a bit of information about GWT, anybody with a strong Java
>>>> development background, especially with Swing (and probably other MVC
>>>> frameworks) will find rather easy to develop complex UI with GWT. The sole
>>>> fact that we don't have to worry about browser compatibility is a huge plus
>>>> for GWT. And it works very well.
>>>>
>>>> Also finding a good Javascript developer is a lot more difficult than
>>>> finding a good Java developer, at least here, in Montreal! That might also
>>>> influence your technological decision.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Rémi Saïas
>>>> Gestion des technologies de l'information - HEC Montréal
>>>> Analyste  /  ScrumMaster  -  Projet  ZoneCours 2.0/Sakai
>>>> 514.340.6000  poste 2933  -  Édifice principal - RJ 221c
>>>>
>>>> -------- Message original --------
>>>> Sujet: Re: [Building Sakai] Sakai GWT
>>>> De : Adrian Fish<a.fish at lancaster.ac.uk>
>>>> Pour : sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
>>>> Date : 2011-05-12 07:29
>>>>
>>>> Hi Mustansar,
>>>>
>>>> Why use GWT? Writing Java layout code and then compiling it to JS? All a bit
>>>> odd if you ask me.
>>>>
>>>> Why not just learn javascript? YAFT, CLOG, Roster2, BBB. They all use
>>>> javascript and the Trimpath templating engine. OAE uses JS and Trimpath for
>>>> client work. Do yourself a big favour and learn something that'll help you
>>>> further down the line.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Adrian.
>>>>
>>>> On 11/05/2011 10:54, Mustansar Mehmood wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear All,
>>>>               I have been looking for a small 'Hello World' type tool for
>>>> sakai which can be used as a starting point for tool development(using
>>>> google web toolkit). Sakai confluence and google searches didnt help:(
>>>> I am hoping if any one in sakai developer community has a something  of this
>>>> nature and is willing to share.
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Mustansar
>>>> --
>>>> Mustansar Mehmood
>>>> Educational System Developer&  Integrator
>>>> Informational Technology
>>>> Rice University
>>>> Houston Texas
>>>> Ph:(713)348 2523
>>>>
>>>> I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it
>>>> short. -Blaise Pascal
>>>>
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>>>> --
>>>> ==================================
>>>> Adrian Fish
>>>> Software Engineer
>>>> Centre for e-Science
>>>> Bowland Tower South C Floor
>>>> Lancaster University
>>>> Lancaster
>>>> LA1 4YW
>>>> email: a.fish at lancaster.ac.uk
>>>>
>>>> http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/YAFT/Yaft
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Aaron Zeckoski - Software Architect - http://tinyurl.com/azprofile
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Michael Wenk
>> mjwenk at ucdavis.edu
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-- 
==================================
Adrian Fish
Software Engineer
Centre for e-Science
Bowland Tower South C Floor
Lancaster University
Lancaster
LA1 4YW
email: a.fish at lancaster.ac.uk

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