This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Norman Richards. Original Post: The failure of JSF Feed Title: Orb [norman richards] Feed URL: http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/java?flav=rss Feed Description: Monkey number 312,978,199 Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Norman Richards Latest Posts From Orb [norman richards]

I've used JSF for a while now, and I actually like it. However, I think this podcast shows the big failure of JSF. JSF is actually a great technology, but when an obviously talented development team can't figure out how to use a technology then there is a clear problem.

It's funny that the problem he mentions in this podcast is actually very simple to solve. But, why couldn't they figure it out? It's obvious that Sun has completely failed to give people the information they need to effectively use JSF. I know this firsthand from my struggles to learn JSF last year. The documentation is horrible and although I hate to rag on the JSF book authors, the JSF books put out so far are terrible. They do a great job of explaining the inner workings of JSF and all the details you'd need to know to write a JSF implementation or develop a framework on top of JSF. But they completely fail to make the technology accessible and show people how to do simple things like what the podcaster is complaining about.

JSF is a nice technology, and it is quite a shame that it is so hard for people to get into it and be productive. I hope that changes in the coming months - otherwise JSF will truly be a failure.