1. Introduction to Flutter
Here I will not waste your time by writing here and their things. I just want to give you the basic introduction of the flutter framework in a very short and simple manner. I will try to make this article Short, Simple, and Very Specific. So that you can quickly get started with the framework.
What is Flutter ?
Flutter is an Application development framework created by Google and the community.
- Type — Application Development Framework
- Developers — Google and Community
- Official Release — 04 December 2018
- Stable Release — Flutter 1.5.4, As of May 16, 2019
- Written In — Dart, C, C++, and Skia as Graphic Engine
- Targeted Platform — Android, iOS, Fuchsia OS, Desktop, Web and Embedded Devices
Flutter Features
What makes flutter so unique and powerful is its features. Flutter has four main features.
- Stateful Hot Reload
- Native Performance
- High Productivity
- Beautiful Apps
What makes flutter unique ?
Flutter’s Technology and its working make it unique from others.
Everything in the flutter is Widget. And For drawing those widgets on the screen, flutter uses neither WebView nor the OEM widgets that shipped with the device. Instead, flutter uses its own high-performance 2D rendering engine named Skia to draw widgets on the screen. Which makes it unique and provides high performance over 60fps.
Complete Flutter framework is made with three languages: C, C++, and Dart.
- The Graphics framework and virtual machine are implemented in C and C++.
- For the framework and widgets flutter uses dart. Flutter implements most of its system like gestures, animations, widgets, framework, etc in a dart.
- By using dart, developers can easily read, change, replace, or remove the code. This gives developers tremendous control over the system.
Flutter Drawbacks
As every technology has its own pros and cons, flutter has its own too. But here we also need to consider that flutter is still new in the market. So many amazing features, support, and solution are about to come in the nearby future. So please be optimistic and give it some time to grow.
Here I just represent some current problems that flutter faces.
1. Lack of third-party services and plugins
As flutter is very new in the market it has fewer third-party plugins and services. If you are just a student and want to learn the flutter or if your app doesn’t need much more third-party plugins then it’s okay to get your hands dirty with flutter.
But the organization never chooses any platform based on likability, they always choose a platform based on their needs. Every commercial application needs third-party plugins to fulfill its tasks, and if the platform doesn’t support that third-party service then they have to drop that platform and move to another one.
For example, Your app uses payment services, one of the most amazing services is from Strip, and for your payments need you regularly use Stripe’s services. But as flutter is still very new, Stripe doesn’t have support for flutter till now. So, in that case, you have to drop the flutter and move on to another
. This is the reality and This is how industries work.
But As I say flutter is new, so just give it some time. It is too early to judge the platform’s potential. I’m sure with future updates every big third-party service will support flutter. And For now, you have exclusive support of many Google Services like maps and payments. So for now just give some time, the future will be flutter…
2. Limited Support from Stack Overflow
As flutter is new stack overflow has limited support for it. As the adoption rate of flutter goes higher support will be increased. And For now, the Flutter community is really active over the internet to help you in every situation.
So that’s it for the introduction part guys.
For Quick Summary
In this article, we get a basic understanding of flutter.
- First, we understand what is a flutter. we see its release date, targeted platform, etc.
- Then we quickly see flutter features.
- Then we understand what makes flutter unique, we also see its architecture.
- Then finally we also take a look at its current drawbacks.
As I mentioned I try to keep this article short, simple, and very precise. So you can quickly understand the basics.
I denote the number on the article so that beginners can get help about where to start and what should be the next step to learn the framework. In upcoming articles, we see more detailed stuff about flutter. For that please visit the flutter section on our publication.
Feel free to let me know if I miss something. I’ll love to learn from you. 😉
Till then Keep Loving your work, and keep working lovely. I’ll surely catch you up in the next article. 😊