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Google's cross-platform Flutter UI toolkit goes 1.0

techcrunch.com

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

#71

Post by wootie512 »

I have been a freelance Android Dev for past 4 or 5 years. I have recently built out a flutter app for a client. And honestly I am now looking for more Flutter work.

UI development in Android is such a pain and I feel like I spend most of my time trying to get the UI just right. With Flutter I am building UI so much faster and getting to focus on the actual logic of the code. Dart was fine, I learned it as I went. I enjoy it more than Javascript but like Kotlin much more.

The app I built with Flutter was pretty straightforward, so I haven't stretched the platforms capabilities, but hoping I get the chance to.

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

#72

Post by pritambarhate »

One of the main issue with Flutter is that you can't embed a native view inside a flutter widget tree. This makes it limited as we can't have inline maps or custom video views.

There are people working on it. The progrss has been slow. I checked a couple of weeks ago and the issue was still open.

But as far as I know you can have a native view in its own activity.

Though not a blocker for simple apps which previously used Cordova or ionic, I don't think Flutter is ready to replace native development for immersive apps.

Embedding a native view in cross platform UI is possible with Xamarin and React Native, so they are more practical choice for certain types of apps that need this.

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

#73

Post by sebe »

pzo wrote: post #67

Writing plugins/bindings for native code in flutter doesn't look fun. Almost 100 lines of code to write binding for function that doesn't take any parameters and returns simple 'int' (int getBatteryLevel()). This just looks even worse than JNI to me. Don't want to even thing how long time it would take me to write bindings for function that do image processing. https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/examples/…

They have started a "Dart FFI project" https://gist.github.com/mraleph/2582b57737711da40262fad71215...

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

#74

Post by izacus »

pzo wrote: post #67

Writing plugins/bindings for native code in flutter doesn't look fun. Almost 100 lines of code to write binding for function that doesn't take any parameters and returns simple 'int' (int getBatteryLevel()). This just looks even worse than JNI to me. Don't want to even thing how long time it would take me to write bindings for function that do image processing. https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/examples/…

> We are on the verge of VR and AR and I don't see how flutter can help e.g. processing >100fps Video Feed using OpenCV library. The demo they presented on stage with ML and smile detection had quite big latency. I wouldn't call it real time.

I can't find any claim from Flutter team that 100fps video processing is even their goal. So that's a strange metric to measure it by - especially since it's competing against Javascript interpreted code which is far from fast by any metric.

> So far it seems the easiest way to call c++ functions is using ObjC++ or Qt framework.

On mobile? Qt really isn't pleasant or usable on mobile.

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

#75

Post by smy20011 »

pzo wrote: post #67

Writing plugins/bindings for native code in flutter doesn't look fun. Almost 100 lines of code to write binding for function that doesn't take any parameters and returns simple 'int' (int getBatteryLevel()). This just looks even worse than JNI to me. Don't want to even thing how long time it would take me to write bindings for function that do image processing. https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/examples/…

I think you mixed UI code with platform channel code. The only code that use platform channel is this line.

https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/examples/plat...

I really hope flutter can provide a guide for FFI though.

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

#76

Post by hamaluik »

yorkstool wrote: post #49
hknd wrote: post #27

Damn - that VSCode theme and color scheme from the screenshot in the article looks really nice. Does anyone know its name? 1: https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/pasted-ima...

Pretty sure that's the Nord theme( https://github.com/arcticicestudio/nord-visual-studio-code ).

Perhaps paired with https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Coenraad... ?

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

#77

Post by lern_too_spel »

forgot-my-pw wrote: post #45
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 is being used internally at Google for AdWords and other core products: https://www.dartlang.org/community/who-uses-dart Even if it's not popular elsewhere, with its use inside Google, it won't be going away anytime soon.

AdWords previously used GWT, which is no longer maintained by Google. I get the feeling the AdWords team just really doesn't like JavaScript, which is understandable, but it doesn't say anything about whether AdWords will stick with the current non-JavaScript language du jour or move to another.

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

#78

Post by pritambarhate »

pritambarhate wrote: post #72

One of the main issue with Flutter is that you can't embed a native view inside a flutter widget tree. This makes it limited as we can't have inline maps or custom video views. There are people working on it. The progrss has been slow. I checked a couple of weeks ago and the issue was still open. But as far as I know you can have a native view in its own activity. Though not a blocker for simple apps which previously…

Here is the list of issues with current implementation of "platform views": https://github.com/flutter/flutter/labels/a%3A%20platform-vi...

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

#79

Post by thosakwe »

pzo wrote: post #67

Writing plugins/bindings for native code in flutter doesn't look fun. Almost 100 lines of code to write binding for function that doesn't take any parameters and returns simple 'int' (int getBatteryLevel()). This just looks even worse than JNI to me. Don't want to even thing how long time it would take me to write bindings for function that do image processing. https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/examples/…

It seems the like the newer Dart FFI effort will benefit current users of the Dart C API, which is great news...

Dart C/C++ interop hasn't been a super-bright spot so far, and I am _beyond_ glad to see it's about to change.

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

#80

Post by thosakwe »

nailer wrote: post #38
warent wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I just don't trust it to be around long enough to be an investment for me." Normally I would be inclined to agree with you given that this is Google, but the good news is that Flutter is open source. So even if Google discontinues internal development on it, it's likely that the community will continue it anyway.

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

> nobody seems to be maintaining it there

That's factually incorrect. Development of Dart for the Web has never stopped. AngularDart is still officially supported, and under active development.

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