FAQ

This FAQ page is frequently updated

Frequently asked questions

1. What are the main considerations to fork Wavemaker ?

   • Backwards compatibility
   • Conserve the collective knowledge which will become useless in time because the original Wavemaker code-base will be thrown away by Cloudjee.
   • No trust that Cloudjee can deliver a stable release based on AngularJS within 2 years (october 2013) which will have at least the same functionality as WM6.6.

2. What are the objections against Cloudjee policy to use Angularjs as the foundation framework for future releases?

   • Thirst it must be said that this is not a matter of which Java-script framework is the best.

   • Wavemaker is currently (version 6.6.M3) developed fully in Object Oriented Programming (OOP) style which is supported by Dojo (dojo.declare (dojotoolkit.org)). This means that maintaining the Wavemaker code-base and extending the functionality is a breeze.

   • Speed-issues caused by Angular's dirty-checking system
     The documentation of Angularjs itself says that :
     Games and GUI editors are examples of applications with intensive and tricky DOM manipulation. These kinds of apps are different from CRUD apps, and as a result are probably not a good fit for Angular.

   • Two-way databinding and the use of directives are features which are already available in Dojo for a long time.

   • angularjs is not a toolkit but a framework-library.

   • Though within Google Trends it seems that Dojo is not used very much compared to Jquery and Angularjs is running up, it has to be said that a lot of internal business applications(which are not reachable by Google) are build with Dojotools. For example IBM is a large sponsor and user of Dojotools.

3. Are Ondofaristo's version and Cloudjee's new versions compatible?
   It depends on if and how Cloudjee keeps the current Java-script page-template with widget definitions for the front-end. For sure the look of the generated applications will be different because Cloudjee's widgets will be based on Jquery while OndoFaristo's source-base will stay on Dojo widgets (but Jquery widgets can be build as custom components)
   The Java back-end will be compatible as long as Cloudjee keeps the Java source-code fully open-source.

4. Does OndoFaristo have enough resources to maintain the source-code
   Future will learn. Currently potential developers are invited to help and possibilities like crowd-funding or sponsorships are under investigating.

5. If it's a breeze to work with OOP supported by Dojo then why didn't Wavemaker keep up with new Dojo-versions?
   This was a political choice, not a technical. Lack of resources for doing this job was the main reason. It's well known that updating Dojo from version 1.6 to 1.9 needs a major investment due to changing the way of module management (AMD). But Dojo version 1.9 is fully compatible with version 1.6 so AMD is not a real show-stopper. A lot of original Dojo files are changed to fix Dojo-errors. It's assumable that most of these fixes are incorporated into Dojo-version 1.9 .

6. **Why Dojotoolkit ? **
   The main reason is one-stop-shop. Implementing a best-of-breed means that new dependencies enter the project.