Also, GWT makes interacting with JavaScript libraries VERY painful. You have to go through a JNI-like FFI to do it.
My take away from my time working in GWT is that the main thing it was trying to do is fundamentally misguided. It tried to make Web development more like desktop UI development by erasing the client/server boundary. But that’s a natural and important boundary that needs to be clearly visible. And, in its effort to do so, the project ended up also creating a new artificial boundary that isn’t helpful and shouldn’t exist.
The problem isn’t writing client code in Java, BTW. There are plenty of projects like Elm that use the same language for both client and server code, and work well. The problem is trying to hide the Web behind a Swing-like API.
My take away from my time working in GWT is that the main thing it was trying to do is fundamentally misguided. It tried to make Web development more like desktop UI development by erasing the client/server boundary. But that’s a natural and important boundary that needs to be clearly visible. And, in its effort to do so, the project ended up also creating a new artificial boundary that isn’t helpful and shouldn’t exist.
The problem isn’t writing client code in Java, BTW. There are plenty of projects like Elm that use the same language for both client and server code, and work well. The problem is trying to hide the Web behind a Swing-like API.