i’m really interested about flutter so your comment comes to me as a surprise ( since i think you didn’t mean it as a compliment).
Do you have any criticism about flutter you’d like to share ?
Do you have any criticism about flutter you’d like to share ?
Less mature than every cross-platform mobile UI framework that are around since iOS and Android have won the mobile market.
At the same time Fuchsia how has a UI composition engine, where Flutter is just one option among many (Scenic) and they are toying with a Rust based one (Fuchsia-ui).
Being burned by Dart 1.0, I will only take it seriously when it officially gets adopted by the Android team.
Dart was rejected by the community it was aimed at, Javascripts devs (and for pretty dumb reasons, I don't have much respect for either Javascript or its devs).
Google understandably took the opportunity to reboot it.
None of this is the same as dropping it, which for sure would merit "being burned".
It's now a modernised and slick version of Javascript (minus the functional, which no one uses anyway) with a full Android and IOS framework and extensive and properly documented libraries. And it's opensource.
At this point it's not possible for it to be 'dropped'.
Beeing open source only means an organisation, or a group of developers, with the capacity to handle a project the size of flutter + dart, could do so if they wanted to.
Which means basically noone, except maybe in China, because nobody could have the firepower to deal with something this big ( maintain and even harder have it evolve) for free.
And unlike a google service, which requires continued resource usage and high cost, flutter+dart has low needs. It may get outdated, but it can't be disappeared like other dropped google projects.
In any case, Unless Dart+flutter becomes an undesirable competitor to another google offering, there is no reason for Google to drop it unless it fails to get sufficient adoption. But I think that's unlikely.
Javascript devs are widening their horizons these days (as opposed to their rejection of Dart 1.0), and Dart only needs a few of those javascript devs to take an interest. The framework is an easy crossover for many of them, with an almost instant access to app development and little commitment needed to spin up.
Just look at how long it took to get a correct map on flutter (and i don't think they've catched up yet).
I think they took a very good direction from a technical point of view, to recode everything from the lowest level possible, but that kind of approach requires a tremendous level of commitment.
Flutter needs an update once a year at most, and is mostly cosmetic and a bit of wrapping. Again, the heavy lifting has been done.
Coding from the bottom up....has been done.
I think you may be overstating the 'commitment'.
What we need to keep in mind here, is the context, that dart/flutter is easy access - it's no Angular or Cocoa - and that no sane, mature dev programs in only one language and one platform unless it's legacy.
We're not talking about a massive commitment from a dev, so talk of 'being burned' by Dart 1.0 is already a bit of a headscratcher when google didn't drop it, rather changed up and arguably improved Dart. How can that be called 'being burned'. For instance, dropping the need for 'new'. So, sure, it makes the code slightly less readable, but it also opens Dart to neat code and even maybe DSLs. Then they added Flutter.
I can understand this POV. Has there been any rumors that the Android team might adopted flutter ?
Check their latest AMA on Reddit.
https://old.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/av3lhx/were_on_...
And here is the relevant comment, I think:
https://old.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/av3lhx/were_on_...