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by twistedpair 4661 days ago
The solution is very similar to GWT, Google's ugly step child. Why ugly, because it uses Java... hiss! Boo! Yet it does make every optimization under the sun and boils it down to JS.

Using JS to insert CSS, DOM nodes, and more JS is becoming pretty standard now. ExtJS and GWT led the way seven years ago, and frameworks need only dumb it down more to gain popular acceptance. I've been on teams that made award winning sites with GWT, but you had a steep learning curve. Perhaps OJ can overcome that.

2 comments

Have you ever used ExtJS? ...I have had the displeasure of developing with it at a large financial institution...it is madness...everything is a JSON object and what ends up happening is a mixing of concerns...putting logic, and layout in the same place.

ExtJS didn't lead shit...there is a reason hardly anyone uses it.

GWT I am not personally familiar with, but if it is at all like ExtJS I want to stay AWAY as much as possible.

> ExtJS didn't lead shit...there is a reason hardly anyone uses it.

One major reason is it's just so freaking large and unruly to do anything simple. It's one of the few frameworks I've used that even after moderate use, I still had to keep the docs open on one screen even during routine development. The error messages weren't very helpful, either.

I did use it for a large project over about 14 months. You do need those docs open and since Sencha's doc servers were always overwhelmed, they suggested you run your own locally ;)
Even so, the GWT creators ended up recognizing the value of presentation markup and introduced the UIBinder system (HTML markup + XML for custom widgets), which arguably made my life a whole lot easier when I was working on a moderate-sized GWT codebase. It's definitely better compared to mucking around with Swing-looking code soup.
GWT-P takes this a step further with completely isolated layers (MVP) so that you can easily make permutations of your app bound to a Tablet, Mobile, and Desktop set of Views very easily. I've been using it a year now and love it.