4 ms·

... If you are coming from JavaScript is TypeScript surely much "nearer" than Java... but if you are from Java why not stay in Java (with transpiler)?

jfengel 6y ago
I come from both. I find that learning a new language is much less difficult than learning the new ecosystem. If I'm going to write front-end code, learning the front-end idioms is more effort than the differences between Java and Javascript. If I want to use somebody's widget from NPM I'm going to have to learn Javascript anyway. That said, the best reason to continue to write Java is that I can share business objects between front and back end. That fact is what led to node.js, which is an abomination upon the earth. It's the worst of both worlds and yet its existence is inevitable. Similarly, I've been writing Javascript lambdas because that's what Netlify supports easily, and the horror overwhelms me. I am so sorry Java didn't win on the browser side. In a slightly different world the JVM accessed the DOM natively, but in the end Javascript felt like "native" webapps to users where Swing and AWT didn't. In the end, that's what I wish to produce: apps that the users feel comfortable with, no matter what terrible language I have to do it in.
- dewanto 6y ago
  If you have to learn to use NPM, then it is really tough :-) Sofar I always use the available UI component frameworks (DominoUI, GWTBootstrap3, ...) and I never have to use NPM to download the JS libs, Maven only ;-) Agree, that at the end the our target should be the users and they don't care about the technology you use in the implementation. But from my point of view, we also don't have unlimited resources. So it plays a role whether you have a full stack which you can use from client (web browser) to the server and this is where GWT / J2CL / Spring Boot have their "power".

4 ms·

... If you are coming from JavaScript is TypeScript surely much "nearer" than Java... but if you are from Java why not stay in Java (with transpiler)?

by dewanto 6y ago

jfengel 6y ago
I come from both. I find that learning a new language is much less difficult than learning the new ecosystem. If I'm going to write front-end code, learning the front-end idioms is more effort than the differences between Java and Javascript. If I want to use somebody's widget from NPM I'm going to have to learn Javascript anyway. That said, the best reason to continue to write Java is that I can share business objects between front and back end. That fact is what led to node.js, which is an abomination upon the earth. It's the worst of both worlds and yet its existence is inevitable. Similarly, I've been writing Javascript lambdas because that's what Netlify supports easily, and the horror overwhelms me. I am so sorry Java didn't win on the browser side. In a slightly different world the JVM accessed the DOM natively, but in the end Javascript felt like "native" webapps to users where Swing and AWT didn't. In the end, that's what I wish to produce: apps that the users feel comfortable with, no matter what terrible language I have to do it in.
- dewanto 6y ago
  If you have to learn to use NPM, then it is really tough :-) Sofar I always use the available UI component frameworks (DominoUI, GWTBootstrap3, ...) and I never have to use NPM to download the JS libs, Maven only ;-) Agree, that at the end the our target should be the users and they don't care about the technology you use in the implementation. But from my point of view, we also don't have unlimited resources. So it plays a role whether you have a full stack which you can use from client (web browser) to the server and this is where GWT / J2CL / Spring Boot have their "power".