I have always been uninterested in what is actually happening IN the browser. Because of this, I have gravitated toward typical server-side development (Servlet-derived stuff, ORM and the like). I enjoyed MFC development earlier in my career and I am one of those weirdoes that think Swing development is fun (SWT would be extra-cool but it doesn’t seem like the most marketable thing to look at). Web applications are great to work on until I had to tweak crap for a browser to look good.

I have gotten hyper-juved about GWT. Utilizing the browser to achieve a richer user experience is not a new thing. What is new (for me) is being able to take a traditional software engineering approach to the code that actually executes in the browser. GWT is the first technology that has made this possible for me.

Here is the ironic bit… Getting into GWT has made me get really interested in all of the traditional browser-centric technologies! The stuff that made me wince before is now strangely appealing. JavaScript and CSS are at the top of my “list o stuff to assimilate”. Is it possible that this is really the hidden agenda of GWT? “Yeah first we will get all those Java snobs interested in writing Java in the browser… then they will get a taste of JavaScript and CSS... then they will stop being babies about browsers.” Of course I am not serious (accept for the part about Java snobs like me being babies about browsers).