GWT Meetup 2015 - GWT 2.8 and Beyond

GWT Meetup 2015 - GWT 2.8 and Beyond By Ray Cromwell
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltqWRoJ0S-o&list=PL1yReUCGwGvrqscLu1EAyYRPrr0ceEHLE&index=1]

Transcript

1. GWT 2.8 And Beyond Ray Cromwell, Goktug Gokdogan
2. What’s in it
3. New Features • Java 8, all language features enabled • JsInterop • GSS default • System.getProperty() • Plus performance and fixes
4. What’s done
5. Features done • Java 8 language feature • JsInterop implementation(of older spec) • GSS • System.getProperty
6. What’s not done
7. Java 8 bugs • One lambda bug with local classes • One reference method bug
8. Java 8 emul • Still need partial implementation • java.util.function • java.util.stream
9. JsInterop • Spec nearing finalization (see mailing list) • Much of changes are naming conventions and restrictions checking/diagnostics • Still need to implement native method for concrete class types (Elemental 2.0 especially need this)
10. Beyond
11. Lessons Learned • Javascript used to suck • GWT arose to solve 10 years old problems • Duplicates a lot of modern Java and JS toolchain • Javascript no longer sucks • And ES6, Typescript, JSX, CoffeeScript • Mobile taking over • JS Frameworks like Angular, React, Polymer are ahead
12. Realizations • Our old codebase doesn’t have much in it to address where market is headed • It’s staggering complexity makes it hard to evolve without breaking compatibility
13. GWT is a …? • Transpiler (Java -> JS) • Java Code Optimizer, Js Code Optimizer • Annotation Processors (Generators) • Builder System (Linkers) • Runtime • UI Toolkit
14. Future Directions • Radically reduce technical debt • Use standard toolchain where possible • Standard Java toolchain • Perm Properties -> Command line properties • Generators -> Annotation Processors • Linkers -> Build Systems / Plugins
15. Future Directions • Standard JS Toolchain • Idiomatic ES6/JS modules output • Closure Compiler as JS Optimizer • Leverage standard browser APIs (Elemental) and JS libraries for UI through JsInterop
16. Future Vision • Arbitrary Java and JS liberties just “work” together • Extremely fast and simple compiler, conceptually easier to understand • Compiled Java a first class citizen on par with hand written JS, as friendly as CoffeeScript or Typescript