Update: Google Web Toolkit Blog: Getting to really know GWT, Part 1: JSNI:
we naturally want to apply a lot of optimizations to source code and catch bugs as early as possible. Both of these goals are directly facilitated by Java’s static type system and the existence of great Java IDEs. That is why we, dispassionately, chose to center GWT on Java technologies. That’s it — no fodder for language wars here.
// Lots of stuff about JSNI, which lets you put raw Javascript into your GWT Java code…
…to which I say, fine, great…but why such a big deal?! Especially the way the above post made it sound–why would I care to use GWT if I’m just going to write everything in Javascript? The syntax for the in-Java Javascript, as I understand it, essentially escapes it–so no debugging there. Without a GWT- specific Eclipse plug-in, the code won’t even be colorized correctly.
Yesterday, shortly after writing that post, I started looking into OpenLaszlo, which I discovered about two weeks ago during all this …er, discovery process. So far, it looks very promising. I’m hoping to get some time to play with it on personal projects* this weekend. *It is getting to the point where I’m getting pretty unmotivated to learn Yet Another RIA Framework, so doing something I have a little bit more stake in is the best way to start. Plus it is the weekend. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.