Ryan Dewsbury

Finished Google Web Toolkit Applications by Ryan Dewsbury. We read this book as part of a reading group at work. In this book Dewsbury goes over the basics of using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and discusses a number of sample applications that show how GWT can be used in projects that are slightly larger than your standard example project.

Like most books on a specific technology, this book is not destined to be a classic. When this book was written the current version of GWT was 1.4. Since then there have been some major changes to GWT. That said, Google Web Toolkit Applications does a fine job of introducing developers to the basics of GWT, and if a newer version existed, I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn GWT. Given only the current version, I still recommend the book to anyone willing to read through the release notes of all the versions since 1.4. I would also caution that this book introduces you to writing basic GWT applications. It does not necessarily introduce you to the art of writing high performance GWT applications.

My full summary goes into detail about the contents of the book.

This book provides a good introduction to GWT, but, despite the author's claims to greater generality, it really is an introduction to GWT and web development for Java desktop developers rather than an introduction to GWT for developers already familiar with web development and who, therefore, really want an in depth explanation of GWT with respect to the many well known pitfalls of web apps.… (mere)