4 ms·

Dart 1.24: Faster edit-refresh cycle on the web and new function type syntax

89 points by tweakz 9y ago

skalkin 9y ago
This is awesome - kudos to the Dart team! Dart was a pleasure to work with since the very beginning, and it is getting better with each new release. I absolutely love the recent focus on strong mode support. DDC is an important addition to the platform, hope hot reloading will follow. Also, can't wait to see what Dart 2.0 brings us!
- markdog12 9y ago
  > can't wait to see what Dart 2.0 brings us What makes you think there will even be a 2.0? I ask because a couple of years ago there was talk of 2.0, but sadly, that has tapered off to silence.
  - munificent 9y ago
    There will be a 2.0. We've been quieter publicly than I'd prefer, but we've been no less busy for it. Stuff that's going on: 1. We have a giant corpus of internal code at Google that we support and migrating all of that to strong mode while also iterating on strong mode itself is a ton of work. (Very few languages significantly change their type system after launch!) 2. The new dev compiler that generates cleaner modular JS is maturing and getting an increasing number of internal users. There's a lot of features to add, bugs to iron out, etc. 3. We are consolidating our tools onto a shared front end (lexer, parser, static analyzer). Up until now, we've had independently written and maintained front ends for the VM (in C++), dart2js (in Dart), and the analyzer for IDE support (also in Dart, but a separate codebase). Merging those into a single shared front end is a monumental amount of work since each of those targets has very different needs and hard performance requirements. Hopefully soon we can start saying more about what's coming.
    - SureshG 9y ago
      Thanks for the update Bob! I know you have been working on nullable types in Dart. Is this something we can expect before Dart 2.0?
      - floitsch 9y ago
        It's currently not planned for Dart 2.0. We intend to work on it at a later point again.
    - hajile 9y ago
      Now that the browser isn't the primary target for dart, is there work going on to make threading possible?
      - floitsch 9y ago
        There are no plans to add multithreading to the platform. Currently, we are not spending resources on parallel execution (with isolates), either. There are other easier features that have more impact. Eventually, we will revisit this topic, and see if we can make things easier. Multithreading itself is extremely unlikely, but there are other ways we can make parallel execution better; for example with easier data sharing between isolates.
        markdog12 9y ago
        > There are other easier features that have more impact Which features?
        floitsch 9y ago
        For example: - better type promotion (`if (x is! A) throw "not A"; useAsA(x);`. - Optional new/const. - Allowing named arguments at any position at the call site. These are all easier to specify and implement, and reach more users.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
- isoos 9y ago
  > hope hot reloading will follow Which hot reload? (1) reloading the web page on change, (2) reloading the Dart source in the VM. For the later there is this: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/runtime/vm/service/service.md#reloadsources https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/runtime/vm/serv...
mentaat 9y ago
With ES6 and Typescript having momentum behind them, what is the point of the Dart project?

89 points by tweakz 9y ago

This is awesome - kudos to the Dart team! Dart was a pleasure to work with since the very beginning, and it is getting better with each new release. I absolutely love the recent focus on strong mode support. DDC is an important addition to the platform, hope hot reloading will follow. Also, can't wait to see what Dart 2.0 brings us!

markdog12 9y ago
> can't wait to see what Dart 2.0 brings us What makes you think there will even be a 2.0? I ask because a couple of years ago there was talk of 2.0, but sadly, that has tapered off to silence.
- munificent 9y ago
  There will be a 2.0. We've been quieter publicly than I'd prefer, but we've been no less busy for it. Stuff that's going on: 1. We have a giant corpus of internal code at Google that we support and migrating all of that to strong mode while also iterating on strong mode itself is a ton of work. (Very few languages significantly change their type system after launch!) 2. The new dev compiler that generates cleaner modular JS is maturing and getting an increasing number of internal users. There's a lot of features to add, bugs to iron out, etc. 3. We are consolidating our tools onto a shared front end (lexer, parser, static analyzer). Up until now, we've had independently written and maintained front ends for the VM (in C++), dart2js (in Dart), and the analyzer for IDE support (also in Dart, but a separate codebase). Merging those into a single shared front end is a monumental amount of work since each of those targets has very different needs and hard performance requirements. Hopefully soon we can start saying more about what's coming.
  - SureshG 9y ago
    Thanks for the update Bob! I know you have been working on nullable types in Dart. Is this something we can expect before Dart 2.0?
    - floitsch 9y ago
      It's currently not planned for Dart 2.0. We intend to work on it at a later point again.
  - hajile 9y ago
    Now that the browser isn't the primary target for dart, is there work going on to make threading possible?
    - floitsch 9y ago
      There are no plans to add multithreading to the platform. Currently, we are not spending resources on parallel execution (with isolates), either. There are other easier features that have more impact. Eventually, we will revisit this topic, and see if we can make things easier. Multithreading itself is extremely unlikely, but there are other ways we can make parallel execution better; for example with easier data sharing between isolates.
      - markdog12 9y ago
        > There are other easier features that have more impact Which features?
        floitsch 9y ago
        For example: - better type promotion (`if (x is! A) throw "not A"; useAsA(x);`. - Optional new/const. - Allowing named arguments at any position at the call site. These are all easier to specify and implement, and reach more users.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
isoos 9y ago
> hope hot reloading will follow Which hot reload? (1) reloading the web page on change, (2) reloading the Dart source in the VM. For the later there is this: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/runtime/vm/service/service.md#reloadsources https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/blob/master/runtime/vm/serv...

mentaat 9y ago

With ES6 and Typescript having momentum behind them, what is the point of the Dart project?