4. Software Engineering for Ajax

Perhaps the greatest advantage of using the Google Web Toolkit to build Ajax applications is having the capability to leverage advanced software engineering. JavaScript was never meant to be used to build large applications. It lacks language features that assist in code organization and compile-time type checking. It also lacks mature tools for building large applications, such as automation, integrated development environments, debugging, and testing. This chapter looks at how to use the Java software engineering tools in GWT to build nontrivial high-quality Ajax applications.