JavaScript knowledge - how much js is enough?

[Charles McGuire]

Hello,

I've been following GWT from a distance, which is to say we have not used it yet. From what I understand of it so far, it seems to solve a lot of problems (though what new technology doesn't?)

My development staff is very lean. We don't have a lot of people. Since JavaScript is a common denominator, and is used a lot within GWT, I challenged one of my developers as a goal statement in her last performance review to become the JavaScript expert in the shop. After reading some of the answers to posted questions, I'm wondering if that is necessary or not.

My question is: How much js knowledge is required to understand the book contents and examples? How much js knowledge should we have before making effective use of GWT? Bottom line, is learning js a worthwhile goal in a GWT framework?

Thank you in advance.

[Adam Tacy]

Hi Charles,

For the book, I think you can get away with having almost zero JavaScript knowledge.

In real life, unless you heading to the edges of GWT, or linking to an existing JavaScript library, you could argue that you don't need to know that much JavaScript at all.

In my view, to get going with GWT you just need to have a passable knowledge of:

* what you can and can't do functionally in a JavaScript program (don't expect your GWT app to do something a JavaScript program can't).
* an idea of the DOM, since that is what you are manipulating
* that GWT AJAX calls are all asynchronous and what that means to your program flow
* styling using Cascading Style Sheets

As you get going further into GWT then you might start focussing on one or more of those issues in more depth as you need.

Hope that helps!

//Adam