Hi,
Should a Rails developer consider using GWT as a core component, or is the concept that rails uses prototype so rails developers should focus on use of prototype?
Tks
A lot of widgets of GWT are implemented in prototype family javascript libraries, and Rails gives helper methods for the common used widgets.
In GWT, java code is written for implementing the required java script bahaviour and then it is converted by GWT compiler in to javascript, I am not sure how will that fit in to rails/ruby world.
Regards, Jatinder
Its actually quite alien really - you design your layouts in Swing and then cross-port them to HTML+AJAX. Its obviously a successful model for google and something that really appeals to a large chunk of the java community who aren't in the Web development camp.
It just seems to me (even as a Java developer) about as good a fit for web developement as learning classic french literature through japanese.
It would be even less relevant to a Rails developer. The primary purpose of GWT is to bootstrap you into web 2.0 technologies by leveraging Java skills.
Richard Conroy wrote:
Its actually quite alien really - you design your layouts in Swing and then cross-port them to HTML+AJAX. Its obviously a successful model for google and something that really appeals to a large chunk of the java community who aren't in the Web development camp.
It just seems to me (even as a Java developer) about as good a fit for web developement as learning classic french literature through japanese.
That may be so, but as a rails developer I feel a little envious of some of the features in GWT, such as their browser history management:
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/documentation/com.google.gwt.user.client.History.html
of course it may be that I can easily achieve the same effects with rails, but just haven't worked out how.
Another thing is that I'm quite envious of the google homepage, which I assume is built using GWT, with it's collapsible windows. I have implemented collapsible windows in our rails app, but it feels a bit messy.
I guess I have to come out of the closet 
and admit that I did my
first graphics programming in swing/AWT and the idea of having a widget
into to which I can drop my content into is appealing. Of course it may
just be that I haven't found quite the right way of creating a single
template that I can use generically across all the collapsible windows
in our current rails app.
Just thinking out loud ...
In reality, it's not as though Rails depends heavily on Javascript at all. Prototype is not a necessity... it's reasonably easy to drop GWT code into Rails (just put the files into /javascripts and link them like normal). You miss out on Rails helpers and RJS, but you also miss out on browser quirks and a totally non-widget-oriented framework.
I'd say, if you feel significantly more comfortable with Java than with JS, or if you really dig the widgetty nature of the GWT, go for it.