Google Web Toolkit

I've been thinking about whether web development has gotten to the point where hand crafting web front-ends by hand is offering diminishing returns. The argument is that directly writing JavaScript, HTML and CSS will produce the most elegant and efficient code and I don't disagree with that although I have to wonder how many web developers really build such good code?

I started thinking about the argument that to really optimize one has to write in assembly. Eventually, though, compilers got so good that it produce better and faster code then most developers. Even if the code is not as optimized, the growing complexity of applications made it such that the amount of extra time it takes to code in assembly just doesn't seem to be worth such small gains.

GWT seems to be Google's answer to this. I want to take some time playing with this and see how it is. My only reluctance is diving back into Java.

Starting a New Lunar Year

Last week marked the start of the new lunar year (Chinese New Year). The previous year was suppose to be a year of misfortune because it encompassed a double winter, and looking back at all that has happened in 2008 around the world that it seemed to fit.

I'm going into 2009 with a little more optimism and being thankful for all the good things in my life.