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Ben Alex carved out some time to talk to me about the SpringSource Roo project, a very interesting and different take on Convention over Configuration Frameworks.
All of the major prior frameworks seem to use dynamic and meta-programming tricks to get work done. Ben’s team focused on taking advantage of the Java platform, and hence Roo is a fast, java-and-AOP solution for getting things done using existing APIs like JPA and Spring’s APIs. Applications are built using a command-line shell (even with code completion, just hit tab!) but in the end, they are just maven-based Spring projects.
You can find out more about Roo itself by visiting
www.springsource.org/roo
Mentioned in the podcast is the book “The Humane Interface” by Jeff Raskin. Ben says that reading that book helped him form the basis for his ideas about Roo.
Ben Alex can be reached via twitter as @benalexau, and the #roo hashtag gets quite a workout. We also suggest visiting the forums, as JIRA issues posted there are generally answered promptly.
Chariot Solutions is a SpringSource education and consulting partner.
Note – this is the interview that started Ken down the road of writing Roo in Action. So in a way, it’s sort of a historic moment for the Roo community. You can hear the seeds of what is coming in future versions of Roo from Dr. Alex’s interview.