Google Web Toolkit is great for creating Ajax enabled content spots on your web pages. But what about creating large web applications with GWT? The DayZipping tech blog asserts that there are benefits to be had from using GWT, including a reduced server load, social integration and some SEO help through the history manager.
Using GWT to Build a Large Web Application
The SEO assertion is interesting, as a historic slam against GWT has been the inability of search engines to spider content on these types of rich content delivery sites.
The dubious line in the article reads as follows: "the GWT team here in Atlanta (day trips) has done an incredible job optimizing their compiler and libraries." That's an interesting statement.
Even on small projects, the compile time for GWT applications aggrevates even the most patient developers. Just how much optimization of their compilers was needed, how skilled does one need to be with regards to optimizing the GWT compiler in order to make working with the framework worth your while, and is this optimization of compilers and libraries significantly resource consuming over time? Those are the concerns of people thinking about adopting GWT as an in-house development framework, after all, who really cares if a GWT app reduces the load on the server?
Using GWT to Build a Large Web Application
A Few Ways To Get Better GWT Compile Times