After a bit of a development slowdown around the holidays the Grails development team is back at full throttle working on the next release. Version 0.4 is probably going to be ready to ship within the next few weeks. Version 0.3 was a really significant release in terms of new functionality and addressing some key issues that had been lingering. I feel like 0.4 is even more significant. The team is working hard to add new functionality and also filling in a lot of those little nuisance gaps.

Things are really ramping up in the Grails community. We are seeing folks coming up with interesting plugins. The mailing lists are very active. If you haven't taken a look yet, give Grails a spin. The Quick Start Guide doesn't even scratch the surface of capabilities but is a good first step. Following that guide will take about 10 minutes and you will have a simple CRUD application up and running.

Stay tuned for exciting things from Grails in the coming months.

Finally, after a lot of waiting and a lot of work from the Groovy dev team, Groovy 1.0 has been released.

Thanks to the Groovy dev team for working through all of the challenges, hassles, debates, hard work etc. that were all part of getting to 1.0.

2007 is going to be a big year for both Groovy and Grails. I am proud to be a member of the Grails development team and I am looking forward to what 2007 holds in store for us.

As one of my mentors is fond of saying... Press On!

Groovy 1.0 RC2 was released today. If all goes well over the next few days the 1.0 release should be available by year's end. The community has been waiting a long time for this. All of the hard work and patience from the Groovy development team is about to pay off. Thanks Guys!

Have A Groovy Christmas!

The Definitive Guide To Grails is finally available from Apress. The book is a well written easy read that provides a great foundation for Grails developers.

Manning's Groovy In Action (GINA) has been available through their Early Access Program for several months now. The final version of GINA will be available in the next month or so.

Things are heating up in the Groovy and Grails communities. Look for a lot of exciting things to be happening around Grails soon.

Grails 0.3 was released today. A lot of work went in to this release which addresses over 100 bugs and feature requests. In my opinion, the fact that Grails is currently at 0.3 is a little misleading. The framework is very powerful and stable. There is a lot on the horizon but the tool is very powerful in its current state. Give it a spin.

I have recently joined the Grails development team and I am looking forward to what the future has in store for Grails.