Google Web Toolkit Leaves Beta
The Google Web Toolkit, an open source framework to help developers create Ajax applications using Java, graduated from beta testing on Tuesday.
In announcing the official 1.4 release of the software, Google engineers Bruce Johnson and Dan Peterson all but declare desktop application development dead.
If you’ve been in the technology industry for a while, you probably remember when enterprises and software vendors had to think pretty hard about whether to develop locally-installed desktop applications or Web-based browser applications.
These days, whether you’re building mashups, gadgets, or full-blown applications, it’s a no-brainer: The browser is the delivery platform of choice.
While Adobe, Apple and Microsoft among others might not be so quick to dismiss desktop apps, writing software for the Web has become the preferred path for many and Google Web Toolkit deserves some credit for that.
Before Google Web Toolkit came along — 2005, if you can remember that far into the hazy past — developing AJAX applications was significantly harder than it is now in part because different browsers handle JavaScript in different ways.
As Johnson and Peterson explain, Google Web Toolkit lets developers write code that works across a variety of browsers:
The magic trick is that Google Web Toolkit cross-compiles Java source code into standalone JavaScript that you can include in any Web page.
Instead of spending time becoming JavaScript gurus and fighting browser quirks, developers using Google Web Toolkit spend time productively coding and debugging in the robust Java programming language, using their existing Java tools and expertise.
I’m personally pleased with the results.
Google Web Toolkit will really save you time in maintenance and is a great tool for scaling your server, because it allows you to ship off a lot of state information to the client.
Google Web Toolkit 1.4 offers significantly better performance than earlier iterations of the software as well. I feel the need, the need for speed 
On the Google Web Toolkit blog, Johnson estimated that recompiling applications with Google Web Toolkit 1.4 can result in software that has 30% less code and can run 20% to 50% faster.
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2 Responses to “Google Web Toolkit Leaves Beta”
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This is a great idea! I hope to see some improvements in the software I use!
Thats great news and we’ll go check it out. We’re traditionally desktop software developers, but have been building hybrid apps for some time now - Windows/Mac client, but using the power of the internet to deliver content etc. I’ll go look into it though