Web development using Play! framework

Question

I started learning and developing with Play! framework. I love this framework, it's simple and easy to learn. Yet, I think there's one disadvantage when comparing Play! (and JAVA) to other frameworks using a dynamic language (like Python, Ruby..)

For every change (front-end or back-end) I have to wait for the classes to be compiled, even if it's just a simple HTML adjustment.

I want to know if there's a smart way to "overcome" this.
I can think of one which is styling your frontend independently from the project and only then attach it.

Still, Is there any other thing that can be done?
Thanks.

Answer 1

You don't need to make any additional efforts - Play has hot-compile feature built-in.

Just while development use play ~run command to start the application and ... work. It causes that changes are compiled as soon as possible (after detecting changes in file(s)).

Of course if you changing lot o files without saving and then you'll save all of them at once the compilation will take several seconds, but when saving often small changes (ie. consider using IDE with auto-save function) Play compiles them almost in the fly.

• AnnieOK: yeah, it's a matter of couple of seconds, but it's not as immediate as dynamic languages are. I guess the grass is always greener...
• biesior: Yes Java is compiled... that's it... anyway finally in production stage you don't need to compile anything anymore. Take as an example some PHP frames - PHP is dynamic too, but because of performance they building some caches... believe me that even in PHP such rebuild can eat several minutes in large projects :)

Answer 2

http://zeroturnaround.com/software/jrebel/

what you asked for is JRebel.

Every time a developer tests a code change it takes minutes to build and deploy the application. JRebel keeps the app server running at all times, so testing is instantaneous and interactive.

as they described themselves

• biesior: Play 2.x has this possibility without requirement to use any 3-rd part soft.