

Ask HN: Why does Google ask for C/Java experience for their front-end positions? - threepointone

I was perusing Google's current job openings, and I noticed that their candidate requirements for front end engineering include this - 
:Significant development experience in server-side technologies such as C/C++ and/or Java.
and 
:Knowledge of UI frameworks such as XUL, Flex, and XAML a plus.<p>While I can _vaguely_ understand why it would be a plus to know those frameworks, can someone please explain to me why they're looking for significant _server-side_ experience in Java and C++? What exactly does that have to do with Front end engineering (since I'm assuming they're mainly developing HTML/JS/CSS applications)?
One of many such links: http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/mountain-view/swe/front-end-software-engineer-mountain-view/<p>[Apologies if this isn't the right forum to be asking this; I'm just curious.]
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noodle
because they use GWT for most of their front end stuff, and its java.
<http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/overview.html>

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threepointone
Are you sure? I'd love to see a citation.

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noodle
its on the page i linked.

> GWT is used by many products at Google, including Google Wave and the new
> version of AdWords.

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threepointone
Gracias! This explains a bit.

