My three co-authors are starting to put the finishing touches on our Groovy and Grails book, which is out in June. Today we had to design the cover letter (which goes on the back) that tells the audience what this book is about and who its intended for.
Well it struck me as I was helping to write the how perfect Grails is not only for advanced Java users but for extremely basic Java users. The FACT remains despite what many might tell you, Java is strong in the work place and growing even stronger. And there is very good reasons for this, the Java stack can do things that some of the smaller more flexible dynamic stacks just can't do. For example one of the systems I am helping to write right now contains an extreme amount of nightly processing, this system is managed for its starts, the amount of beans running at a time, etc. My point is ... Java is needed for the system.
So where does Grails play into all this? Learning Java is actually fairly easy. Using it properly a bit harder, understanding the components used for applications and how to set up and create a Web 2.0 framework MUCH harder. (this is one are that Java gets rightfully dinged) Its quite the effort and beginners WILL get lost. Enter Grails. It not only sets everything up for you, but makes it easy to run and deploy, you don't even need to configure a database.
But not only that. It uses Spring and Hibernate, tools many Java developers use in their daily work. Now while it wraps much of the pains of both, the general ideas will still be there. Not to mention the clear separation of MVC and Services exists as well. In the end what Grails will give you an easier route to learn more advance items, and when it comes time to use any other Java framework out there you will have an easier time ramping up than your peers. Not to mention you will be able to intelligently talk about Web 2.0 Java development in interviews.
