I’m surprised anyone would trust their UI core technology to be something from Google. They kill projects left and right, and that was before the layoffs.
Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
21–30 of 242 posts
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#22The more "solutions" that are developed for desktop + mobile cross-platform applications, the more I see highlighted how different the paradigms are, and how the streams really shouldn't be crossed. They're both UIs viewed on a screen that you interact with by pointing and clicking, but the similarities end there. The entire output of this cross-platform effort has been awkward applications that run everywhere but fe…
That's nice if you have the funds and time for that. Fully native is ideal.
But I don't agree cross-platform can't feel "right". Flutter's approach it can't. React Native's it can. Qt vs WxWidgets all over again.
If I had to duplicate my codebase for each platform and learn each IDE/language just to continue my app, it would never exist.
I solely created and maintain the iOS app, the Android app, and the web app for my company and for my side projects thanks to React Native.
I can extend any native api or view, I can learn middle out for each platform.
I can abstract and swap out any file or conditionally style based on platform.
I developed the web app first using React Native Web. It took me a month to get the iOS and Android app released to the store.
No Ionic or web wrapper crap needed... The one thing is getting the React stack and tooling just right.
So it's Expo or devote quite a bit of time in the beginning to your stack.
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#23To me as someone who recently got into Flutter to make a side-project (mobile game) the most glaring problem isn't the lack of ecosystem or little UI issues the author mentions but the language itself. You had a green field to make the best programming language for creating UIs and you made Dart? Like what.
I don't have particular issue with the heavy OOP paradigm but the fact you have to write so much boilerplate feeling code (Center here, Container there) you'd imagine you could have simplified it a lot more. The documentation itself also seems like it could be improved. And some little things here and there, like the constructor syntax. I dislike semicolons as well, to me they're just busy work.
Idk, you'd think an org like Google had the resources and the talent to make something truly amazing. Guess it just shows money can't buy everything. The tooling however is quite amazing. Being able to make cross-platform apps so simply is pretty awesome (React native was a pain in the butt the last time I tried it).
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#24The basic functionality of the typical UI hasnt changed for ages. Yet technologies keep churning. There is probably a better way but apparently people are not incentivised to find it.
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#25To me as someone who recently got into Flutter to make a side-project (mobile game) the most glaring problem isn't the lack of ecosystem or little UI issues the author mentions but the language itself. You had a green field to make the best programming language for creating UIs and you made Dart? Like what. I don't have particular issue with the heavy OOP paradigm but the fact you have to write so much boilerplate fe…
They didn’t create Dart for UI. It was dead and they shoehorned it into Flutter.
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#26It is great to point out things that need improvement, but going so far as saying 'it isn't there yet', seems extreme. If your use case requires these specific issues to be sorted, then it is great to know about them in advance. Nothing is perfect and every single app across every single framework is going to need to make trade offs. If I needed text selection to be faster than what the built in component offers, I'd…
I’m sorry, but not supporting multiple windows (not monitors!) in a single process, and not supporting bog-standard desktop features like context menus, rightfully qualifies as “not there yet”.
It really depends on what the app you're developing requires. My app is just a few buttons for inputting data. I don't need context menus, multiple monitors or text selection. Thanks for the downvote though.
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#27[flagged]
Why? I'd love to know what's so bad about it...
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#28The more "solutions" that are developed for desktop + mobile cross-platform applications, the more I see highlighted how different the paradigms are, and how the streams really shouldn't be crossed. They're both UIs viewed on a screen that you interact with by pointing and clicking, but the similarities end there. The entire output of this cross-platform effort has been awkward applications that run everywhere but fe…
I largely agree with this when the application will be used heavily on each platform. I think desktop + mobile cross-platform does work when one platform is primary and the second secondary (ex. IOT devices). You can then have an interface primarily focused for an embedded application, and then when data transfer or settings for the embedded device needs to be configured, configuring it from the desktop is easier, and having a similar interface all around is beneficial.
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#29Flutter is going to be 5 years old soon. It's not even the leading solution for cross-platform development for mobile let alone desktop. It's great to be positive and supportive but realistically, if someone had to bet months of dev work on building something non-trivial - would they really choose flutter?
It’s hardly some toy SDK that is only suitable for MVPs. Google’s single biggest money maker Ads is built with it. It’s hardly a Google specific thing either there are a number of mega sized players also strongly betting on it for some fairly mission critical stuff if I understood correctly.
> Google’s single biggest money maker Ads is built with it.
If Flutter disappeared tomorrow nobody would even notice it. How much functionality do you think is there?
Re: Flutter desktop isn’t there yet
#30[flagged]
Why? I'd love to know what's so bad about it...
Covariant generics for starters.