Which GWT book to buy? Most seem to be for versions 1.4

Question

I was thinking about getting GWT in Practice by Robert Cooper, or Google Web Toolkit Applications by Ryan Dewsbury

However those are from May 08 and Dec 07. Both would be written for 1.4 - I was looking through the release notes to see what's changed since then:

Nothing seems to have changed from 1.6 to 1.7 http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/doc/1.7/ReleaseNotes%5F1%5F7.html

But stuff seems to have changed from 1.5 to 1.6 "GWT 1.6 includes direct support for web archive (war) output, faster compilation, new widgets, new-and-improved event handling, and much more." http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/doc/1.6/ReleaseNotes%5F1%5F6.html

And seems to be changes from 1.4 to 1.5 http://code.google.com/docreader/#p=google-web-toolkit-doc-1-5&s=google-web-toolkit-doc-1-5&t=WhatsNewinGWT15

I really want to get a book when I'm brand new to something because I'd rather flip through pages of distilled knowledge. But I'm concerned these books might be outdated. Any advice guys?

Thanks! Ambert

Answer 1

In my opinion any existing book on GWT is not worth the money - all are outdated. Spend few hours at book store or online to obtain all relevant information from those books.

1.6 is a fundamentally different by introducing event bus and handlers. Yes, 1.6 to 1.7 is minor fixes only.

Wait for new book that covers 1.6 and later - preferably 2.0. Hopefully, the one that will cover new patterns becoming common - MVC/MVP, command pattern, gin/Guice, etc.

Answer 2

I don't think there is a point to buy any books. Soon GWT 2.0 will be released and the book that you will buy today will be outdated tomorrow.