Google Web Toolkit Angst

I've been using Google Web Toolkit for the last week or so. I'm really liking it, it is really productive and once you getting it working everything is sweet.

The problem is, getting it working is kinda hard, particularly if you want to use Eclipse. I struggled for a day or so to create my own project from scratch but gave up and just copied the DynaTable example and changed a few things. All this is because GWT has these unwritten conventions for stuff that is almost impossible to figure out without days of trial and error.

GWT tries to be all Rails like with "Convention over configuration", which is fine, if you can find out what the convention is.

Another thing that is annoying is the self-righteousness of the tools :

c:\dev\gwt-windows-1.0.20>junitCreator -junit c:\dev\eclipse\plugins\org.junit_3.8.1\junit.jar -eclipse project -out c:\dev\workspace\project com.xyz.project.DataImportViewTest 'com.xyz.project.DataImportViewTest': Please use 'test' as the final package, as in 'com.example.foo.test.MyTest'. It isn't technically necessary, but this tool enforces the best practice.
Google Web Toolkit 1.0.20

Whose best practice are they referring to? I hate the term "Best Practice" - it implies that the currently accepted best way of doing something is the final say on the topic, so don't even bother trying to think of something better. It is arrogant and is like saying "trust us, we are bigger and better than you, go away and leave the real thinking to us".

Anyway, I had thought that this ".test" package style had gone out of favour a long time ago, but it doesn't matter really whether it is best practice or not, what is with the arbitrary conventions ?

I'm sure (and hope) , over time Google will listen to the criticism and make GWT better. It is very good at the moment, but I think it is probably only about 95% there. Another 5% with Maven, Eclipse integration and more configuration options (with sensible defaults ) will truly make it rock !


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