New features in Groovy, XWiki and much more

08 Jun 2009 5 min read

In few words, Groovy :

  • is an agile and dynamic language for the Java Virtual Machine
  • builds upon the strengths of Java but has additional power features inspired by languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk
  • makes modern programming features available to Java developers with almost-zero learning curve
  • supports Domain-Specific Languages and other compact syntax so your code becomes easy to read and maintain
  • makes writing shell and build scripts easy with its powerful processing primitives, OO abilities and an Ant DSL
  • increases developer productivity by reducing scaffolding code when developing web, GUI, database or console applications
  • simplifies testing by supporting unit testing and mocking out-of-the-box
  • seamlessly integrates with all existing Java objects and libraries
  • compiles straight to Java bytecode so you can use it anywhere you can use Java

At XWiki we have been using this technology from the beginning. We use Groovy (1.6.3 as of this writing) to allow extending XWiki directly from wiki pages and to offer a scripting language for users to that they can display anything they want in wiki pages. You would like to mention too the Groovy Console application contributed by Jerome Velociter, that allows to enter Groovy code, to run it interactively and to see the console result on the page.

After a long day at JavaOne (where you could see XWiki), Groovy Tech Lead Guillaume Laforge sat down with Scott Davis (from ThirstyHead, a training and consulting company that specializes in Groovy, Grails, and easy) to chat about the new features in Groovy 1.6 and much more.

Thanks to Guillaume for mentionning XWiki!

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