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Google bets on HTML 5


By Alex Handy
May 28, 2009 — 
The future of Google will be built on HTML 5 and Java.

This was the message delivered by Vic Gundotra, Google’s vice president of developer platforms, at the Google I/O Conference for developers, held yesterday in San Francisco.

For many Java developers, Google Web Toolkit (GWT) has provided a bridge to Web application development. GWT translates Java code into JavaScript, and Google has used it internally to produce desktop-like applications, such as Google Maps.

Gundotra, in his keynote speech yesterday, introduced Google Web Elements, a simplified way to embed Google-hosted elements inside Web pages. At the top of Google's plans for developers is the road map for GWT 2.0. This next-generation bridge between Java and JavaScript is already shaping up to address developer worries around compilation speed and graphical layout.

Bruce Johnson, software engineer and GWT tech lead at Google, spoke about the GWT road map immediately following Gundotra's keynote. Of the changes planned for GWT 2.0, he said that the in-browser hosted mode would see the most dramatic changes. This mode, primarily used for debugging, would soon be revamped with browser plug-ins to help developers support more than one browser in each OS, said Johnson.

“I would not be interested in cross-compiling to JavaScript without hosted mode,” said Johnson.

“It gives you the ability to debug in Java, make a change in your source code, and hit refresh in your browser to see the changes. This is not a simulation of a browser, it is a browser. We just had to wire it into the JVM. [Before 2.0], we're only able to make that happen for one browser per OS.”

Johnson said that GWT 2.0 will include in-browser hosted mode for all browsers, not just one per platform. In addition, he said that this new model for debugging would allow a developer using Eclipse in the Mac OS to debug using a virtualized instance of Windows running Internet Explorer.

Johnson also said that GWT 2.0 will include compiler flags that can be used to speed up build times. He regretted the fact that 2.0 compile times were growing beyond what even he admitted were already long periods, but he also said that new compiler flags in GWT 2.0 will make quick development builds faster.

Beyond GWT 2.0, Johnson said that longer-term plans include the integration of the jQuery port, QuickQuery.

As for Google's long-term platform plans, the company announced that support for Java within Google's cloud-like App Engine was no longer in beta form. The company will also begin utilizing features of HTML 5 within its applications, and it will offer similar support to developers using their APIs.

Gundotra said that HTML 5's Canvas tag will improve layout control, and he predicted that its geolocation features and its video controls would ease life for developers.

Also announced at the show was the general availability of Java support from Google App Engine, the company's cloud hosting service. Java applications had been supported on a preliminary basis, but Google said that the system could now support Java at promised service levels.


Related Search Term(s): Google, HTML, Java


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