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Flutter for Linux

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Re: Flutter for Linux

#41

Post by Lionga »

harikb wrote: post #28

I have a request for all the Flutter folks/fans - it would be great if you all can say something about how you can get over / stay sane with the staircase looking nesting of code blocks and how you manage to keep it all in your head to navigate the code base. I started my career writing single threaded Palm OS apps (64k limit) - there was like 10 possible widgets with 5 possible events on each widget and rest of it w…

You just don't throw everything in a big build method, but make small functions for every logical unit instead. Simple, easy, clean and maintainable.

Re: Flutter for Linux

#42

Post by blandflakes »

axegon_ wrote: post #15

I'm actually a great fan of flutter and imo it is the best cross-platform solution out there. Probably except for web: though it produces very good result performance-wise, the end result is never really "web" and doesn't act like traditional web. As for desktop applications(whether it be windows, linux or mac), it seems like it's too mobile-oriented. I see great potential for simple solutions like self-service opera…

Dart actually has a lot of characteristics that make it appealing for a lot of the areas I'd have (begrudgingly) used Go - command-line tools or local utilities. It "can" be scripted, but also AOT compiles, has a saneish type system with generics, and doesn't have pointers to deal with. It's hard for me to want to use it on the web, but I keep watching it and wishing good things for it.

Re: Flutter for Linux

#45

Post by pjmlp »

cxr wrote: post #11
colesantiago wrote: post #8

What is the off chance that Google will drop Flutter?

If the Vala folks and Gnome in general could be convinced to drop Vala in favor Dart, or move valac in the direction of accepting a language that looks like (a subset or a complex supersubset of) Dart, it could be an effective hedge against Google pulling out. It would also be an instance of Gnome and the various commercial vendors who rely on it being ahead of the curve—particularly for mobile, while proprietary ven…

Gnome is already adopting Rust, and GJS has been the Vala alternative for ages, so no luck for Dart.

Also Gnome has had multiple language bindings since the early days, most of them have more use across Gnome apps than Vala.

Re: Flutter for Linux

#46

Post by heavyset_go »

harikb wrote: post #28

I have a request for all the Flutter folks/fans - it would be great if you all can say something about how you can get over / stay sane with the staircase looking nesting of code blocks and how you manage to keep it all in your head to navigate the code base. I started my career writing single threaded Palm OS apps (64k limit) - there was like 10 possible widgets with 5 possible events on each widget and rest of it w…

> it would be great if you all can say something about how you can get over / stay sane with the staircase looking nesting of code blocks and how you manage to keep it all in your head to navigate the code base.

The same way you would in any other code base, with the ample use of names and modules, and breaking nested components and logic into their own classes and functions.

The problem is that it requires discipline, or at least a standard style guide, to adhere to. It's similar to JavaScript in that regard, where bad practices can seemingly be ignored or even encouraged.

Re: Flutter for Linux

#47

Post by Apocryphon »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #36
skratlo wrote: post #12

Yay, Macromedia Flash for desktop is here, made in Google, Dart instead of ActionScript, wow, just wow.

I assume that this is meant as a criticism, but Flash was quite good at easy-to-make portable graphical apps; they had massive security issues and some lack of polish, but there's a reason why Flash dominated its era. (Also, "Macromedia Flash for desktop" was already a thing, no?) So yeah, "Flash but modern and safe" would be a pretty strong selling point.

There was just a thread bemoaning the lost art of Flash games last week:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23705174

Re: Flutter for Linux

#48

Post by muth02446 »

RivieraKid wrote: post #31
axegon_ wrote: post #15

I'm actually a great fan of flutter and imo it is the best cross-platform solution out there. Probably except for web: though it produces very good result performance-wise, the end result is never really "web" and doesn't act like traditional web. As for desktop applications(whether it be windows, linux or mac), it seems like it's too mobile-oriented. I see great potential for simple solutions like self-service opera…

I've been using Flutter in the last few months and agree. It's the best multi-platform solution for mobile , although it still doesn't match native behavior and performance, it only gets close. On the web it's DOA for most use cases - it's just a canvas, so scrolling, text selection, shadow rendering, etc. is custom, doesn't feel native and must be downloaded and compiled. It can have a future on desktop. One "cultur…

I wish the dart/flutter team would focus on improving dart for web (e.g. by updating/fixing the JS bindings) instead of chasing flutter for web which seems like a long shot and rather hacky (referring to using the canvas for rendering content)

Re: Flutter for Linux

#49

Post by mixmastamyk »

Good to see. I've been wanting to use Flutter for a Linux-based appliance but it still needed a lot of work on that front until recently. If there was a bittorrent library in Dart as well I'd be off to the races.

Up until this time I've been using Kivy for the application, but it has a ton of issues and doesn't seem to receive much investment or support, even if you wave money around.

Re: Flutter for Linux

#50

Post by vetinari »

blandflakes wrote: post #42
axegon_ wrote: post #15

I'm actually a great fan of flutter and imo it is the best cross-platform solution out there. Probably except for web: though it produces very good result performance-wise, the end result is never really "web" and doesn't act like traditional web. As for desktop applications(whether it be windows, linux or mac), it seems like it's too mobile-oriented. I see great potential for simple solutions like self-service opera…

Dart actually has a lot of characteristics that make it appealing for a lot of the areas I'd have (begrudgingly) used Go - command-line tools or local utilities. It "can" be scripted, but also AOT compiles, has a saneish type system with generics, and doesn't have pointers to deal with. It's hard for me to want to use it on the web, but I keep watching it and wishing good things for it.

> command-line tools or local utilities.

FFI is quite a PITA, though. Soomer or later you will have to interface some platform libraries, and Dart doesn't make that easy.

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