Google Web Toolkit Vs AngularJS

Lately  i've been involved in a discussion about ... which technology we have to use to build best  enterprise web application ? 

The question was very interesting so, all involved actors started to put on the table  a lot of different technologies. The most sponsorized ones were been  GWT and AngularJS.

But ,from my perspective, we have first to understand the context where such applications will be  developed in order to , as much as possible, understand of what we need and not what we like.

The Context

Let assume that we have a group of 10 developers skilled in java  and with a enough know-how about web design (i.e. html/css knowledge ). They use Eclipse IDE to write code and maven to build,package and deploy. Finally the  backend is entirely written in java

The Choice

Considering that both of these technologies seem to fill the same space, but coming at it from different angles, the choices behind the decision could be summarized in:

• Change development model introducing new tools and new approach enforced by choice of pure javascript 
• Reuse know how, tools and experience behind them 

Concerns

• Using GWT for large project implementation we need to taking care about compilation phases that require time/resources and imply an accurate tuning.
• In other hand using AngularJS we have deal with tooling selection to keep control over development outcome

What about Maturity ?

Moreover i think that we should not  understimate the maturity level of these frameworks, other than age, 7 years GWT against 3 years AngularJS,  taking also in consideration that Google has developed, supports and uses itself GWT.

The Decision

While considering that JavaScript language will evolve more of others  in the near future along with the tools / frameworks related to it, in this context my decision has been to use GWT. This because i think it is very important the available TOOLING around a technology/framework and the possibility to reuse all stuff around java give us a great advantage 

Google I/O 2013 - GWT Roadmap for the Future