For small scripts there is no reason to use GWT, however, for large AJAX applications it can be incredibly advantageous. GWT performs comprehensive optimizatio

For small scripts there is no reason to use GWT, however, for large AJAX applications it can be incredibly advantageous. GWT performs comprehensive optimizations - in-lining methods, limiting property access, removing dead code, limiting code size, and more. http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/wiki/CompilerOptimizations http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/wiki/CompilerOpt... As a result of all of these optimizations, GWT can produce code that is as fast if not faster then hand written JavaScript. The reason for this is that most large JavaScript projects tend to use a lot of dynamic features (such as dynamic binding) and other conveniences instead of writing super optimized JavaScript code by hand. Also care to explain what you mean when you say "It helps Java engineers feel like they can write web stuff" are you implying that JavaScript engineers create "web stuff" well Java engineers don't?