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Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

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Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#11

Post by saagarjha »

s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #6
bradhoffman wrote: post #3

I’ve given Flutter a try with one of my client’s apps, and in some cases, it’s obviously better than native development. Mainly because you can develop for both platforms. I’d be curious to hear where other developers think Flutter is a good framework to use instead of developing native code.

On iOS it's obvious it uses emulated controls. I think if you want a fully themed app that looks the same across all environments, you should go with Flutter. If you want an app that looks the same as other native apps on the target environment, you should go with React Native.

I’m not sure why this is downvoted, as it summarizes Flutter pretty well. Flutter’s “Cupertino” theme is obviously an emulation if you use it for more than a minute. If you want your app to look like an Android app on both platforms, though, I think it does pretty well at that.

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#12

Post by xkapastel »

I'm confused about the mentions of Chrome OS here. In particular:

> You can also publish Flutter apps for Chrome OS to the Play Store

Do they mean, you can publish an Android app and then run it with Chrome OS's support for that? How else are you supposed to run Flutter apps on Chrome OS? The only other way I see is "web" unless I'm missing something.

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#13

Post by solarkraft »

saagarjha wrote: post #11
s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On iOS it's obvious it uses emulated controls. I think if you want a fully themed app that looks the same across all environments, you should go with Flutter. If you want an app that looks the same as other native apps on the target environment, you should go with React Native.

I’m not sure why this is downvoted, as it summarizes Flutter pretty well. Flutter’s “Cupertino” theme is obviously an emulation if you use it for more than a minute. If you want your app to look like an Android app on both platforms, though, I think it does pretty well at that.

Do users care? It doesn't feel exactly native on Android, but is still fast and looks great (it might indeed be better than native).

Afaik the main alternatives, RN and Web (for fully reusable UI) are both heavy and don't feel that native either, yet are popular with developers.

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#15

Post by solarkraft »

andrewstuart wrote: post #7

I wonder if the Flutter engine would work on a Linux system that has only 128MB or 256MB? I've been playing around with devices like this https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WiFi-Display-Dongle-1080P-Wirele... and it would be fun to run Flutter engine on them. edit - would also be fun on the 4GB RAM rk3399 http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3399 tv box: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/X99-TV-BOX-4K-UHD-RK3399-4GB-32G... open source L…

Interesting device. I think RAM shouldn't be the bottle neck, but CPU/GPU speed and memory might be. Do you already know how to get your own software on there?

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#16

Post by afiori »

saagarjha wrote: post #11
s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On iOS it's obvious it uses emulated controls. I think if you want a fully themed app that looks the same across all environments, you should go with Flutter. If you want an app that looks the same as other native apps on the target environment, you should go with React Native.

I’m not sure why this is downvoted, as it summarizes Flutter pretty well. Flutter’s “Cupertino” theme is obviously an emulation if you use it for more than a minute. If you want your app to look like an Android app on both platforms, though, I think it does pretty well at that.

The emulation is a feature with well understood trade offs. One of the point is to decouple as much as possible from the OS, I believe one of the advantages is that in flutter's mdoel it should be easier to make one-off apps that need less updates.

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#17

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

solarkraft wrote: post #13
saagarjha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure why this is downvoted, as it summarizes Flutter pretty well. Flutter’s “Cupertino” theme is obviously an emulation if you use it for more than a minute. If you want your app to look like an Android app on both platforms, though, I think it does pretty well at that.

Do users care? It doesn't feel exactly native on Android, but is still fast and looks great (it might indeed be better than native). Afaik the main alternatives, RN and Web (for fully reusable UI) are both heavy and don't feel that native either, yet are popular with developers.

IMO, UI frameworks that try to mimic native components virtually always fail, because they end up being an almost-but-something-I-cant-put-my-finger-on-feels-wrong situation, e.g. performance isn't quite there or the physics is different.

Much better IMO to go for a "minimalistic", neutral interface where people won't always be comparing your app to better native controls.

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#18

Post by wstrange »

xkapastel wrote: post #12

I'm confused about the mentions of Chrome OS here. In particular: > You can also publish Flutter apps for Chrome OS to the Play Store Do they mean, you can publish an Android app and then run it with Chrome OS's support for that? How else are you supposed to run Flutter apps on Chrome OS? The only other way I see is "web" unless I'm missing something.

Flutter apps can now target the chrome browser (preview at this point). So a chromebook can run Flutter apps via the browser OR via an Android Flutter app.

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#19

Post by saagarjha »

solarkraft wrote: post #13
saagarjha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure why this is downvoted, as it summarizes Flutter pretty well. Flutter’s “Cupertino” theme is obviously an emulation if you use it for more than a minute. If you want your app to look like an Android app on both platforms, though, I think it does pretty well at that.

Do users care? It doesn't feel exactly native on Android, but is still fast and looks great (it might indeed be better than native). Afaik the main alternatives, RN and Web (for fully reusable UI) are both heavy and don't feel that native either, yet are popular with developers.

As a user, I care quite a bit. As a developer, though, I get paid to tell people that their software doesn’t follow platform UI conventions and I run their code through mental checklists (“does the title animate properly during a controller pop, does this custom view break accessibility”) so I think it’s pretty obvious that I have a very specific slant on this issue. Keeping that in mind, I think that many users do care but they don’t necessarily make it the only thing they care about, nor are they particularly good about vocalizing their concerns. To them an app is just “weird”, or “unusable”, depending on what the framework actually breaks.

Re: Flutter: a Portable UI Framework for Mobile, Web, Embedded, and Desktop

#20

Post by afiori »

solarkraft wrote: post #13
saagarjha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure why this is downvoted, as it summarizes Flutter pretty well. Flutter’s “Cupertino” theme is obviously an emulation if you use it for more than a minute. If you want your app to look like an Android app on both platforms, though, I think it does pretty well at that.

Do users care? It doesn't feel exactly native on Android, but is still fast and looks great (it might indeed be better than native). Afaik the main alternatives, RN and Web (for fully reusable UI) are both heavy and don't feel that native either, yet are popular with developers.

I am using a lot of apps that still have a jellybean feeling to them, if it does not crashes and it is not a swipe-hell (I have an underpowered phone) it is fine to me.
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