Top > Webmaster > 2006 > May > 2006-05-22

Google New Toolkit Makes Programmers Lives Easier

JavaScript isn`t considered an easy programming language, to say the least, but many programmers are forced to learn JavaScript, especially with Ajax gaining popularity. Google decided to make the lives of programmers much easier, and provides a simple way of creating Ajax applications. The new Google Web Toolkit is a framework that transforms a standard Java application into Ajax so it will work on any browser.

"Programming in JavaScript is a real nuisance," said Bret Taylor, product manager for Google`s developer program. "Depending on the scale of app you`re creating, you quickly realize that a scripting language that`s implemented differently in each Web browser is not an ideal environment in which to work." By way of example, it took Google, which has a sizable share of JavaScript programmers, more than a month to get Google Maps working properly in Apple`s Safari browser, even though it worked just fine in Internet Explorer and Firefox, said Taylor.

The new Google Web Toolkit works with any standard Java IDE to convert a full-blown Java application to JavaScript, while paring down the application and removing classes and functions not allowed in the more restricted browser environment. JavaScript applications, for instance, don`t have access to the computer`s file system, while Java does.