Google Web Toolkit (GWT), which lets developers build browser-based applications in Java and deploy them in JavaScript, is on track for major enhancements this year. The GWT road map calls for two upcoming upgrades, but the latter will break compatibility.
The technology was the subject of the GWT.create conference in Silicon Valley late last week, where Google senior engineer Ray Cromwell talked about its direction. With GWT 3.0 due around the fourth quarter of this year, plans call for breaking compatibility with previous releases so that developers can deprecate older technologies. Previously, compatibility was rigorously maintained.
“Now, because IE6, IE7, and IE8 are dead and there’s certain legacy things that we don’t want to support anymore because we need to target newer browsers and this new world of mobile, we want to deprecate these things,” Cromwell said. Developers who recompile apps to GWT 3.0 might find them failing and will need to edit code to get them to work. But GWT builders will continue developing the 2.x line. “We’re not going to leave those people out to rot,” said Cromwell.
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