Google has released the Google Web Toolkit, a framework for developing AJAX apps in Java. I suppose it's a good thing, because we certainly know that Google has done some fantastic AJAX work (Google Suggest, Google Maps, GMail). And the way they handle RPC is smart. But it seems odd to me that they've decided to encourage developers to write their JavaScript in Java. The vast majority of the functionality in the GWT is in UI components, which are really just fancy new DHTML widgets. It seems to me that JavaScript, as a browser scripting language, is already high-level enough. Building a toolkit on top of that removes the programmer even further from what's really going on. And it offers developers a chance to skip JavaScript class altogether, never having to learn how to debug JavaScript, how to code for multiple browsers, and how to work with the DOM. While that's probably a tempting offer for those who don't have the time or inclination to go down the JavaScript path, to me they all seem like critical skills in building web-based apps. I'm concerned about any tool that gives developers a way to avoid JavaScript altogether.