GWT is expected to automatically produce faster, smaller and much more manageable JavaScript than programmers using manual script writing techniques and will also serve to improve the compilation of Java-based applications.
"Based on our testing now, I'd say [GWT 1.5] produces better code than JavaScript experts can produce by hand," Bruce Johnson, co-creator of GWT, said at the recent GWT Conference in San Francisco.
GWT is an open-source Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language, according to Google.
Programmers develop application front ends in Java then use the GWT compiler to convert the Java classes to cross-browser, standards-compliant JavaScript and HTML.
According to Google, writing dynamic web applications is a tedious and error-prone process, requiring programmers to spend the majority of their time working around subtle incompatibilities between browsers and platforms. This is a situation compounded by the lack of modularity inherent in JavaScript, which makes sharing, testing and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile.
While Google claims that GWT has been downloaded "millions" of times, no numbers are available on the number of programmers using the tool.
Google intends to focus its efforts on "the most complex libraries, where we can draw on Google's expertise in the Internet," Johnson said, allowing the OpenSource programming community to build code libraries for GWT, which is licensed under Apache.
Cited uses of GWT include addressing usability problems with Internet applications, such as online billing processes that warn surfers against using their back button during stalled transactions, and other Postdata messages that may alarm users.
GWT can be downloaded for free here.
