Comments on: Why are there so many java web frameworks?

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:19:47 +0000

You mean something new has come out since Wicket left the incubator? I didn’t think anyone would bother competing!

Once a Web Framework Category is bloated enough (eg. action frameworks) then definitely yes, why bother adding another framework? Especially if the category’s obsolete. For newer categories like ’stateful component frameworks’ (Wicket, jsf, Tapestry), thick[er] html client GWT like frameworks (GWT,Echo), or RIAs then a little variety might work for a while to help framework authors learn what works and what doesn’t work.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:22:03 +0000

@walter - yea thats probably a better way of putting it. I would guess that improving an existing framework means you have to put time into understanding it, whereas building your own you don’t.

By: Walter Harley

Walter Harley — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:16:42 +0000

Perhaps another way of asking that question is “why do so many people find that improving an existing framework is harder than writing a new one?”.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:39:44 +0000

Stefan,

Thats not exactly what I meant. I was more ranting at the fact that every week I see a blog post for yet another new java web framework, and that many of them must be very similar or have similar goals.

I think that if the community worked together to produce a smaller number of really good frameworks then things would be better for everyone.

By: Stefan F

Stefan F — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:14:52 +0000

Hi Richard,

So you’d suggest to stay on the beaten tracks? If everybody would think so, we would probably still hack our webapps in JSP … or Perl … or C … quite scaring thought, isn’t it?

Regards