Google Web Toolkit - Build AJAX apps in the Java language
Yesterday Google released a Beta of the Google Web Toolkit. Basically, it is a toolkit written in Java that allows developers to create AJAX applications; a Java to JavaScript compiler. After reading through some of the documentation and looking through the sample apps I decided to give it a shot. The documentation was good and in roughly an hour I had a page that could fetch information from flickr.com using an RPC call.
Sadly though, I'm disappointed there is no OS X version yet, but I understand it's due to the embedded web-browser. So, technically I could use this on OS X, but having the embedded browser is really nice. It allows you to treat your Java source more like any scripting language. You change the Java source, save it and simply refresh the browser window in the embedded browser. Once it's reached the point where you like it, compile it and test it in an external browser.
I'm pretty stoked about this release. I have looked at other rapid AJAX development toolkits like RubyOnRails or Mockingbird, but I like the idea behind this one better. Hopefully I'll have more time to play with this, I've already got a widget I'd like to create in mind!