Grails is one of the many web frameworks for the Java platform. However it shines through by its ability to use the best ideas from the Ruby on Rails world while at the same time continuing to leverage the tried, tested and trusted Java platform as well as established frameworks like Spring and Hibernate. With Grails’ tight integration with Java, Groovy based features, growing popularity and improved support from IDEs, Grails looks poised to become the RAD framework of choice for the Java platform.

Java enthusiasts today seems to have a love-hate relationship with Ruby and Ruby on Rails. While there are some who feel it’s over hyped, there are others who feel that Rails is the coolest web application development technology of our times. So who better to talk about Ruby on Rails and Java than the creator of ROR, David Heinemeier Hansson.

In this interview with Satish Talim, David talks about the growth of Rails and its features. He also tells us why Rails is relevant to Java developers and something Java developers need to look at right away.