[zamalek]

Gah! Again! People not explaining what something is on the landing page!

> GWT is used by many products at Google, including Google AdWords and Google Wallet. It's open source, completely free, and used by thousands of enthusiastic developers around the world.

Any amount of things fit that description. Beer? Air? Clicking "Learn about GWT" gets you this:

> GWT is a development toolkit for building and optimizing complex browser-based applications.

That's all it takes! Can we please start seeing these kinds of descriptions on landing pages. You're not selling a clothing brand, you are selling a toolkit to developers: I care first and foremost what the thing does, not how fashionable it is.

[kosinus]

Not even that is enough. My train of thought was: "This is the Java thing, right?" But I wasn't sure, and it's not mentioned anywhere in the opening paragraph of that page either. Java is not mentioned until "The GWT SDK contains the Java API libraries, compiler, and development server."

[jzaruba]

That might be on purpose. Way too many people (even seasoned Java pros) tend to dismiss GWT based on the WRONG assumption that "GWT runs on Java". Not mentioning Java in the very first sentence might by an attempt to avoid this seemingly minor yet critically important misconception.

[prohor]

I wonder though, why they don't mention the latest Google Inbox, which is also done in GWT.

[florian-f]

It was updated very recently, after not being touched for quite a long time. I'm sure they will keep making it better over the next weeks.

[florian-f]

I will let them now, or maybe create a pull request :D By the way, the site is here: https://github.com/gwtproject/gwt-site

[Kiro]

I agree but GWT is such a well-known project that it's almost OK in this case.

[huhtenberg]

Never heard of it until today.

[SwellJoe]

I still don't quite grok GWT, even having known about it for something like a decade. Is it a web application frontend thing that compiles Java to JavaScript?

[prohor]

Basically yes, you write in Java and it compiles it full-client side JavaScript application. But it also has a lot of goodies, like "templating" or rather binding DOM to code, internationalization, code splitting (so not everything is loaded upfront), client-server communication and other things needed in front development. You typically develop one-page applications with it (fully client side).

[jakobegger]

Thank you. This is the kind of explanation that should be on the landing page.

[yitchelle]

When I see a landing page like this, I feel that this is their filter. If you are interested in knowing more, you will seek the answers. Otherwise, you will move on to the next HN post...

The ones that seek to know more are the ones they want to engage.

Only my speculation.

[zamalek]

> The ones that seek to know more are the ones they want to engage.

GWT is a solution, not a community. It might have a community behind it, but some poor soul might land up on that page with the only intent of getting shit done within the scope of their own job.

The ultimate core goal of GWT is to save people time: that is why developers write frameworks. Why should someone have to waste time [struggle to learn the purpose of 'framework X'] in order to save time [use 'framework X'].

Saving people time starts on your landing page. They need to be able to accept or reject your framework with as little further research as possible. "This is what our product does, here are some people who use it, this is what people say." Once people know that you can carry on with the more floral explanations.

[yitchelle]

Thanks for the explanation. The collective wisdom of HN is right on having a landing page with a couple of short sentences on what GWT is all about.

[farresito]

How would you be interested in something you don't even know what it is for? Good descriptions is what generates interest.