Google’s introduced new tools so Web-based software developers can more easily bind their work to Gmail, Google Maps and other Google features.
The free Google Web Toolkit is a nexus between applications relying on AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), a method of building interactive Internet features that immediately process a user request, and Java, Sun’s ubiquitous programming language.
Ease of use is GWT’s hallmark, according to Google. It isn’t the usual “tedious and error-prone process” besetting Java developers using AJAX, Google wrote.
“Trust us, we know–the development of our own AJAX apps, like Google Maps and Google Calendar, caused us no small amount of AJAX-induced frustration,” Products Manager Bret Taylor wrote on the Google blog.
Google’s motivation here is to get more Java developers to work with AJAX. The more brain power the better for Google, which is a big AJAX devotee. The firm has used AJAX to build some of its most important features, including Gmail e-mail and the recently re-renamed Google Maps.