Tapestry 5 is Starting to be a Pain in the Ass!

[Mood] >( (Pain in the Ass!)



I started using Tapestry alomost a year ago with Tapestry 3. Learning the framework was a bit of a pain (it was a steep learning experience for me), but I was still able to generate pages and a site for a project. I like the idea of Tapestry having its presentation layer in plain HTML with with additions of custom tags from their tag libraries to implement loops, output data and alot of other stuff. I was already accustomed to how T3 worked. Then I stopped developing in T3. And now, enters Tapestry 5. It's a big big difference from T3. Alot of the old implementation has been modified. And what little Tutorials they had for T3, they now have less for T5. I'm pretty damn lost in T5. It's hard to unlearn what you got used to in T3. what sucks even more is that the official tutorial doesn't work anymore since they made code changes again in the snapshot build (where the tutorial relies). Arggghhhh!!! Now, I've been thinking if it's even worth it to learn T5 or just go RoR since I've started learning parts of it.

Here's what I like about Tapestry that still wants me to continue learning the new implem:

* HTML frontend (almost seperates entirely the presentation from the logic. a true view-controller division)
* A J2EE framework (at least I wouldn't need to learn a new language)
* Since it's Java based, alot of ready options are available for connectivity, AJAX, image handling, XML parsing, etc...
* I'm not a benchmarker, but i'd say my experience with Tapestry proves it's a reliable framework
* I like thee idea of less XML compared to other frameworks

What I don't like:

* Too many dependencies
* We all know that Java is beginning to bloat. It's a heavy weight. Some say, it's beginning to be outdated.
* Many new things to unlearn and learn



Here's what I like about RoR and why I'd like to learn more:

* Ruby is an interesting language. new and promising. It features duck typing, something weird and fun at the same time.
* RoR promises fast development
* I've been using RoR at work (forced to do so), but primarily on the presentation layer only. sometimes, I tinker with the controllers. hahaha.
* Hence, would help me be more efficient at work.
* Core Ruby code is purportedly lightweight
* I've read that J2EE developers are shifting gear to RoR. Could just be novelty.

What I don't like:

* Group base is still not that big. support may be hard
* the presentation layer is in RHTML and reminds me of JSP implementation. Code snippets all around the HTML code. and partials tend to be misused and abused.


RANT SEGWAY MUNA AKO:

I stumbled on http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/06/ruby_on_rails_a.html, and found that people tend to expect too much from their designers. If you want them to be super designers, better get out of your programming job and let them take your place. FYI, changing mindset from presentation to logic isn't easy. Code-in-HTML is a pretty crappy process. when your application bloats, it tends to become a mess in your presentation layer. Not a pain in the ass for the programmer but for the UI person. What every developer must understand is that presentation is not as easy as everybody thinks. The complexity of managing HTML code with scripting language code with Javascript with Flash and other media and CSS isn't very elementary. Take note, I'm just implying that both business logic and presntation layer development is challenging. Please don't undermine the work we do. Trust me, you don't know much of what we do.



BACK TO THE TOPIC:

Anyway, so I'm faced with this problem. So if I can't learn T5 by tonight, I'm shifting to RoR even though it hurts the web designer in me. hahaha. Atleast it will help me in the job.



Though Chain: Is there an RoR presentation layer framework that does things like T5?