Success with GWT 2.7.0-rc1

[Thad Humphries]

I just wanted to pass on my experiences with GWT 2.7.0-rc1. In a word,
excellent.

Converting my two Ant projects was simple: I just changed the GWT property
to point to gwt-2.7.0-rc1 and everything ran fine. Everything built without
error or warning. My first attempt to launch the devmode UI told me that
firebugHandler and popupHandler were no longer supported--something I'd
seen elsewhere but had forgotten. After removing those from my module file,
the devmode UI launched, and it launched SuperDevMode in Chrome without a
hitch.

My 3rd project, which I've been building with Gradle, was a bit more
trouble. Attempts to build it with 2.7.0-rc1 resulted in a
java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError. Steffen asked me to run `gradle
dependencies` which zeroed in on the problem: My project uses GIN, and GIN
eventually brings in asm:asm:3.1, which conflicts with
org.ow2.asm:asm:5.0.3 from gwt-dev. I excluded asm:asm:3.1 by changing

compile 'com.google.gwt.inject:gin:2.1.2'
compile 'com.google.inject.extensions:guice-servlet:3.0'

to

compile ('com.google.gwt.inject:gin:2.1.2') {
exclude module: 'asm'
}
compile ('com.google.inject.extensions:guice-servlet:3.0') {
exclude module: 'asm'
}

I should note that building the project with Maven did *not* cause the same
class error (and the new devmode worked fine). I guess the GWT Maven plugin
does not reach as deep as Gradle.

My 3rd project also uses MGWT, and I ran afoul of GWT change #7883, which
caused MTextBox and MPasswordTextBox to no longer implement HasText. This
was quickly caught and remedied in the MGWT 2.0.1-SNAPSHOT.

Now `gradle gwtDev` launches the devmode UI, and it launches SuperDevMode.

Being able to run SuperDevMode without having to run a -noserver instance
and the codeserver separately is very nice. The rapid recompile with GWT
2.7.0-rc1 is terrific. (BTW, though I've not tried it yet, change #10121
"DevMode: wait for CodeServer to start before enabling buttons" is a great
idea. I guess we'll see this in RC2?)

Generally I'm happy with debugging through the codeserver, debugging in
Eclipse is more elegant. Therefore I also decided to give sdbg a go
(https://github.com/sdbg/sdbg). Nice work! I will almost certainly use it,
though probably not to the exclusion of using the codeserver. I look
forward to seeing how this project develops.

Thanks for the great work and everyone's help.

[Evan Ruff]

Thad,

I'm fixin' to switch over to 2.7 soon and I'm a gradle user. I'm going to
go ahead and predict that your note about ASM and Gin saved me ~1.5 hours,
~175 f-bombs and, quite possibly, a broken keyboard.

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

E

Post by Thad Humphries
I just wanted to pass on my experiences with GWT 2.7.0-rc1. In a word,
excellent.
Converting my two Ant projects was simple: I just changed the GWT property
to point to gwt-2.7.0-rc1 and everything ran fine. Everything built without
error or warning. My first attempt to launch the devmode UI told me that
firebugHandler and popupHandler were no longer supported--something I'd
seen elsewhere but had forgotten. After removing those from my module file,
the devmode UI launched, and it launched SuperDevMode in Chrome without a
hitch.
My 3rd project, which I've been building with Gradle, was a bit more
trouble. Attempts to build it with 2.7.0-rc1 resulted in a
java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError. Steffen asked me to run `gradle
dependencies` which zeroed in on the problem: My project uses GIN, and GIN
eventually brings in asm:asm:3.1, which conflicts with
org.ow2.asm:asm:5.0.3 from gwt-dev. I excluded asm:asm:3.1 by changing
compile 'com.google.gwt.inject:gin:2.1.2'
compile 'com.google.inject.extensions:guice-servlet:3.0'
to
compile ('com.google.gwt.inject:gin:2.1.2') {
exclude module: 'asm'
}
compile ('com.google.inject.extensions:guice-servlet:3.0') {
exclude module: 'asm'
}
I should note that building the project with Maven did *not* cause the
same class error (and the new devmode worked fine). I guess the GWT Maven
plugin does not reach as deep as Gradle.
My 3rd project also uses MGWT, and I ran afoul of GWT change #7883, which
caused MTextBox and MPasswordTextBox to no longer implement HasText. This
was quickly caught and remedied in the MGWT 2.0.1-SNAPSHOT.
Now `gradle gwtDev` launches the devmode UI, and it launches SuperDevMode.
Being able to run SuperDevMode without having to run a -noserver instance
and the codeserver separately is very nice. The rapid recompile with GWT
2.7.0-rc1 is terrific. (BTW, though I've not tried it yet, change #10121
"DevMode: wait for CodeServer to start before enabling buttons" is a great
idea. I guess we'll see this in RC2?)
Generally I'm happy with debugging through the codeserver, debugging in
Eclipse is more elegant. Therefore I also decided to give sdbg a go (
https://github.com/sdbg/sdbg). Nice work! I will almost certainly use it,
though probably not to the exclusion of using the codeserver. I look
forward to seeing how this project develops.
Thanks for the great work and everyone's help.