On: Asciiflow

[unspecified]

I wish it was javascript!

It's a Google App Engine-based Java monster:

https://github.com/lewish/asciiflow

[6cxs2hd6 → unspecified]

Ergo it being an app that now only displays:

  Over Quota  
  This application is temporarily over its serving quota.  
  Please try again later.

[kodablah → unspecified]

It is GWT, so it is transpiled to JS. I remember when I first saw this project years ago, I was impressed. Back then GWT was the best choice for statically-typed, large JS project development IMO.

[tantalor → kodablah]

Can a GWT app be served statically? Do you need a backend? Can't you just compile it to JS+HTML and be done?

[kodablah → tantalor]

It absolutely can and I have done it many times back in the day. Granted I have moved on to alternatives these days.

[pavel_lishin → kodablah]

We just chopped GWT out of our project a month or so ago; I'll fully admit that I didn't know much about it, but every step of the way I felt like I was battling it - it ended up being easier, faster and more testable to write our own JS for the front-end.