Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0 • Hacker News Board

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#261

Post by nailer » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:27 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #111

nailer wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dart (the lang used in Flutter) already failed to gain traction in the web dev community and nobody seems to be maintaining it there.

> Dart (the lang used in Flutter) already failed to gain traction in the web dev community and nobody seems to be maintaining it there. Dart for web underlies Hummingbird, Google's Flutter-for-web effort that was also announced as a sneak peak alongside the Flutter 1.0 announcement, so Dart for web is very much alive and maintained at Google.

You're missing the point. OP asked what would happen if Google abandoned the project, and it's pretty obvious Dart would die as it being maintained by Google, not the community.

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#262

Post by kbumsik » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:31 AM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #209

kbumsik wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Qt is mostly LGPL. You don't need a lawyer.

Try to download it from qt.io. You will have to go through several screens saying "Are you sure you are able to comply with the LGPL? Wouldn't you rather get the commercial version for peace of mind?". If that isn't an implied threat, i don't know what is.

I don't like this but I also kinda understand why they do so. Many devs around me (I live in Korea) don't care about GPL/LGPL and it is important for Qt to let them know. Qt is commercial software anyway.

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#263

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:36 AM UTC

77pt77 wrote: post #219

nottorp wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to download it from qt.io. You will have to go through several screens saying "Are you sure you are able to comply with the LGPL? Wouldn't you rather get the commercial version for peace of mind?". If that isn't an implied threat, i don't know what is.

All you have to do is link dynamically.

[deleted]

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#264

Post by akmittal » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:53 AM UTC

holografix wrote: post #187

Why is this any better than React and React native? Why would I want to learn Dart and this ecosystem? I mean, it better be damn good

Flutter is supposed to be much faster than React Native because of Skia engine and its GPU acceleration and AOT compilation.

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#265

Post by gcb0 » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 7:03 AM UTC

kristoffer wrote: post #253

freedomben wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't approve of that tactic (in fact it drives me nuts), but I will say, Qt's license fees are quite reasonable, and then you get to link statically with no risk of violating the GPL.

Reasonable? It's about $500 / month / developer with additional royalties if you are shipping devices with Qt firmware. Sure I think Qt/QML is the best UI toolkit available but this crazy pricing is driving me towards any possible alternative. So I'm really hoping Flutter will take off (for desktop/embedded as well, not only mobile). Note that Qt is GPL3 nowadays so you can't really ship embedded devices with Qt with…

only if there was a startup doing embedded chips with gpl firmware...

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#266

Post by hardwaresofton » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 7:07 AM UTC

Androider wrote: post #238

hardwaresofton wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to note that Dart and Flutter are being used for Fuchsia it seems like[0]. I'm pretty sure that Fuchsia is a big project Google is not going to abandon so Dart and Flutter are probably safe. There is the chance of them throwing it away maybe noting it as an experiment on the way to whatever they land on inside Fuchsia but the amount of developer ire they would draw is hard to imagine. [0]: https://9to5google.c…

Fuchsia is to Google as Tizen is to Samsung... something keep in the back pocket for a worst-case legal total war, but unlikely to see any real world use.

Really? but Fuchsia isn't just a mobile operating system -- I think they want to own all the software at almost every level. I wouldn't be surprised if they started running their own hardware and laptops with Fuchsia as well if it was good enough.

It's a bit cynical but I think they might even want to just bin linux as a base for Android and migrate off of it completely, get their notebooks/chromebooks on Fuchsia, and make a play for OSes to run on. Think of how much data they could get for the industrial advertising complex at the OS level.

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#267

Post by cztomsik » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 7:24 AM UTC

malkia wrote: post #230

pjmlp wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WPF uses DirectX.

Thanks! Makes sense if it uses DirectX, not sure why I got skia into this :)

flutter uses skia

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#268

Post by KAKAN » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 7:27 AM UTC

I'm currently using it as an hobby for creating simple UIs. It's actually pretty easy, and it feels more like a newer QML kind-of language. And I like Dart's syntax, coming from a C/Java world.

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#269

Post by mhd » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 7:45 AM UTC

stickfigure wrote: post #189

mhd wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I thought about Tcl/Tk.

Tcl/Tk is 30 years old. I would be willing to bet my retirement that none of the now-popular presentation technologies will be mainstream 30 years from now. They just don't have that kind of shelf life. If Flutter lasts a decade, it will have lived gloriously. React should be so lucky.

I wasn't talking about Tcl/Tk's current state, but about the similar situation it "enjoyed". It, too, had a pretty large community, which quickly went on too greener shores. User base is much more fickle than one might think.

Flutter could be even worse off, as mobile/web development is often corp development, i.e. not something people do because it's enjoyable. Even more people used MFC and Motif, but I don't see a lot of fansites dedicated to those.

Re: Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

#270

Post by zmix » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 7:45 AM UTC

matchbok wrote: post #130

zmix wrote: post #115

Meh, Dart. Yet another language to master, that does not bring me any advantages overall, except for this very platform. I also would welcome an XML based, declarative approach to GUI. Makes cross-platform development even more easy.

+1 for XML/declarative. One day :(

You still have hope?

Somehow I find it hard not to believe, that XML won't come back. One day :(