Screaming Penguin

I spent several hours this weekend poking around GWT 1.7, and introducing myself to AppEngine. I have several ideas for applications to build, but as a starting point I wanted to keep things simple so I built Android Drawables Explorer. This is an application that displays all the android.R.drawable resources that are included in the android.jar archive for reference (basically, it's an updated version of something I did a long time ago without GWT/AppEngine). I built this with GWT, and used an ImageBundle rather than a ton of separate little images (and wrote a little utility to generate the ImageBundle GWT code from android.jar). This app isn't complicated, but it did allow me to get started with AppEngine basics, and while writing it I also tried to get reacquainted with GWT (which I have not used professionally in a year or so - and there have been many changes since the 1.5 days).

I really - no really - like the new GWT stuff. The new Jetty embedded stuff, and new project layout is much easier to use, the styling is better, and small conveniences like more robust IDE support and an automatically created/associated style sheet with each project are great. (I haven't gotten into any underlying detail yet.)

Also, AppEngine is just a beautiful thing. In addition to this little GWT app, I have also been playing around some with other AppEngine projects using both Java and Python. I haven't deployed a monster app and scaled it around the world or anything like that, yet, but what I have seen of my limited exploration so far is fantastic. Very easy to use, extremely powerful, and the power and price are certainly right - well done Google.

Now I am hoping that having a nice foundation and set of tools such as this inspires me to start actually working on several of the "big" ideas I have had over the years. ;)