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0 pointsmonocasa6y ago0 comments

And even then, gmail wasn't really written in javascript. They compiled Java down to JavaScript because JS itself was such a pain to deal with natively.

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svachalek6y ago

I think most of it was written for the Closure compiler (JS-to-JS), with some bits like chat windows in GWT (Java-to-JS).

monocasaOP6y ago

I was under the impression that the closure compiler didn't exist in 2004, only GWT, and that it was rewritten to be almost all JS later.

nogridbag6y ago

Do you have a source for this? Google did create a Java to JavaScript compiler/web framework: GWT but as far as I understood this was never used by the Gmail team. In fact, I heard there was pushback against using this on Gmail.

cletus6y ago

This is factually inaccurate. Gmail is and was always JavaScript. GWT had some successes (eg AdWords). Gmail wasn’t one of them.

andykellr6y ago

Inbox was definitely written using GWT, as were other major google products, but not gmail as far as I know.

cletus6y ago

That’s not true. Inbox was written in Angular originally. Not sure what it evolved to but it was always JavaScript.

dragonshed6y ago

Angular definitely did not catch on for google properties until much much later. Back when I did nothing but backbone/angular consulting, none of the major google properties used angular.

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svachalek6y ago

I think most of it was written for the Closure compiler (JS-to-JS), with some bits like chat windows in GWT (Java-to-JS).

monocasaOP6y ago

I was under the impression that the closure compiler didn't exist in 2004, only GWT, and that it was rewritten to be almost all JS later.

nogridbag6y ago

cletus6y ago

This is factually inaccurate. Gmail is and was always JavaScript. GWT had some successes (eg AdWords). Gmail wasn’t one of them.

andykellr6y ago

Inbox was definitely written using GWT, as were other major google products, but not gmail as far as I know.

cletus6y ago

That’s not true. Inbox was written in Angular originally. Not sure what it evolved to but it was always JavaScript.

dragonshed6y ago

Angular definitely did not catch on for google properties until much much later. Back when I did nothing but backbone/angular consulting, none of the major google properties used angular.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse