Is Grails (now) worth it? [closed]

Answer 1

We have half a dozen Grails applications in production now, and while Grails is different from java frameworks and requires some learning time, it has paid off because we have used Agile techniques. Details:

• We use IntelliJ. It's not very expensive and is has paid back in a few weeks for us.
• Automated testing, Continuous Integration and refactoring are a must, as for for all dynamic language code. If you already practice TDD or at least have a decent test code coverage, then it doesn't add any extra work.
• Hibernate comes by default with Grails, but you can use other persistence frameworks. There are 5 persistence plugins other available today
• Logging was clearly not a concern in Graeme Rochers' mind, but it has steadily improved. I haven't faced an issue where an error was not logged, though (you have to make sure you catch exceptions correctly in your code)
• Debugging was clearly not on the radar (but this has not improved). We don't rely on debugging anyway.

This said, as with all new technologies, I recommend making prototypes, code reviews, pair programming, and maybe use some consulting as well.

Answer 2

Debugging is really hard. I've never found this to be a big problem. You can either attach a debugger and walk through, or stick a load of println/logs into the code to work out whats going on.

Logging is frankly awful. I agree the stack traces generally provide 4 pages of useless info, with the occasional line thats informative. However its a small price to pay for such an awesome framework.

The STS Eclipse IDE is of marginal value. Eclipse has piss poor support for Grails. Use IntelliJ if feasably possible. I am a tightwad, but if my company allowed me I would gladly pay the cash for IntelliJ.

Answer 3

I would suggest you try for yourself. I love the flexibility of Grails and the Development Speed. However as you can see other people's experience differs. I want to be able to develop rapid applications for my clients using the Java Platform and I have found Grails to work very well for us.

I have also found the frontend very flexible to develop. I also think you need to use common sense and choose your plugin's carefully. I stick to the plugins supported by springsource.