7 ms·

How has flutter compared?

xeonoex 7y ago
Not OP, but I've tried all of the big SPA frameworks (not specifically react native though) and I decided to use flutter for a non-trivial side project and I don't ever want to touch the big SPA frameworks ever again. Flutter is also fast, pretty lightweight, and good on battery. It feels native on iOS and Android. I have little Android development experience (side project years ago) and no iOS experience. It's easy to setup, install, and it just works. I develop on Windows and Mac with a .NET Core backend and communicating via GRPC. Deploying the backend to a CentOS server. No issues running anything on Windows, Mac, or Linux, surprisingly. Whenever I have to use node, everything randomly breaks when switching environments. (Maybe I'm just bad with node/webpack and all that, but there is way too much I have to know to just build something).
- Thorentis 7y ago
  I'm considering using Flutter (instead of Ionic which Ive been using for mobile up till now). In terms of Node breaking when switch platforms - are you syncing the node_modules folder between machines somehow? Don't do that. Doing "npm install" will sometimes install binaries specific to a platform that won't work across them. Put node_modules in your.gitignore, and sync between machines using version control rather than something like Dropbox. I used to just put the whole project in Dropbox but ran into too any issues between Mac/Windows.
  - xeonoex 7y ago
    Yeah, I used git and ignored node_modules. Honestly, most of the problems are related to Windows. Whenever I try to use anything geared towards web dev, there are just more issues on Windows. Tons of dependencies that change all the time doesn't help. Most of the web dev industry is on Linux or Mac. It's not all related to Windows though. Just updating packages/frameworks is scary. Setting up Jekyll was tough, even on WSL. I've opened issues on projects, and they would update the project to say that Windows is not supported (though IDK if node was the issue there). I bought a Macbook solely to deploy iOS apps, but it is way easier to develop anything related to web on it. Again, this is coming from someone who doesn't do web dev full time, so I'd probably resolve issues faster if I did, but for my side projects, it's too much maintenance. I just want to be productive if I have an hour or so a day. Flutter lets me do that. I write code, code runs on Android and iOS. It's easy. No react/vue/angular, webpack, bootstrap, scss, typescript definition files, or other 'magic' to worry about.
  - jbjorge 7y ago
    If you use "npm ci" instead of "npm install" there's even less chance of breakage.
mleonhard 7y ago
I am satisfied with Flutter. My app is almost ready for beta testing: https://www.cozydate.com https://www.cozydate.com
artichikin 7y ago
We rewrote our entire mobile app in flutter (previously native android and iOS) for cronometer. It’s been a mostly great experience, and the worst issues have been worked out as the platform is rapidly maturing.
s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
It emulates the UI, so the fake is noticeable, and it will be hard for them to maintain perfect 1:1. RN on the other hand bridges the native UI w/ your code via a JS bridge. The downside is the bridge can be a bottleneck so you have to be careful how much you congest it. The result is being able to expose every native functionality and abstract it anyway you want using React extensions. Flutter plans to target desktop and web, but RN is ready for this today. Flutter requires you to learn Dart, a Google only language. RN you can use JS or TypeScript. Are you really going to trust that Flutter & Dart are around tomorrow w/ Google's record? Why oh why would you build your project with something that risky.
- artsr 7y ago
  Don't know why you're being downvoted. These all are perfectly reasonable concerns. I've seen many GUI frameworks fail because of a mix of these reasons.
  - JaviFesser 7y ago
    Can you downvote in this website?
  - s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
    Either Google or someone else w/ a vengeance follows me around and downvotes me haha.
- xeonoex 7y ago
  > It emulates the UI, so the fake is noticeable, and it will be hard for them to maintain perfect 1:1. I don't think 'emulate' is the right word. It renders it's UI. I don't get 'how the fake is noticeable'. It might be a little bit different, but the average person won't pick it up. To me, this is one of it's big upsides. It doesn't have to do all the translation to native. The performance is good. It's easy to write. No quirks of either OS. Though you do have to worry about the individual OS's if you're doing something lower level, but you have the power to do so, so that's still a plus.
  - 7y ago

Not OP, but I've tried all of the big SPA frameworks (not specifically react native though) and I decided to use flutter for a non-trivial side project and I don't ever want to touch the big SPA frameworks ever again. Flutter is also fast, pretty lightweight, and good on battery. It feels native on iOS and Android. I have little Android development experience (side project years ago) and no iOS experience. It's easy to setup, install, and it just works. I develop on Windows and Mac with a .NET Core backend and communicating via GRPC. Deploying the backend to a CentOS server. No issues running anything on Windows, Mac, or Linux, surprisingly. Whenever I have to use node, everything randomly breaks when switching environments. (Maybe I'm just bad with node/webpack and all that, but there is way too much I have to know to just build something).

Thorentis 7y ago
I'm considering using Flutter (instead of Ionic which Ive been using for mobile up till now). In terms of Node breaking when switch platforms - are you syncing the node_modules folder between machines somehow? Don't do that. Doing "npm install" will sometimes install binaries specific to a platform that won't work across them. Put node_modules in your.gitignore, and sync between machines using version control rather than something like Dropbox. I used to just put the whole project in Dropbox but ran into too any issues between Mac/Windows.
- xeonoex 7y ago
  Yeah, I used git and ignored node_modules. Honestly, most of the problems are related to Windows. Whenever I try to use anything geared towards web dev, there are just more issues on Windows. Tons of dependencies that change all the time doesn't help. Most of the web dev industry is on Linux or Mac. It's not all related to Windows though. Just updating packages/frameworks is scary. Setting up Jekyll was tough, even on WSL. I've opened issues on projects, and they would update the project to say that Windows is not supported (though IDK if node was the issue there). I bought a Macbook solely to deploy iOS apps, but it is way easier to develop anything related to web on it. Again, this is coming from someone who doesn't do web dev full time, so I'd probably resolve issues faster if I did, but for my side projects, it's too much maintenance. I just want to be productive if I have an hour or so a day. Flutter lets me do that. I write code, code runs on Android and iOS. It's easy. No react/vue/angular, webpack, bootstrap, scss, typescript definition files, or other 'magic' to worry about.
- jbjorge 7y ago
  If you use "npm ci" instead of "npm install" there's even less chance of breakage.

mleonhard 7y ago

I am satisfied with Flutter. My app is almost ready for beta testing: https://www.cozydate.com https://www.cozydate.com

artichikin 7y ago

We rewrote our entire mobile app in flutter (previously native android and iOS) for cronometer. It’s been a mostly great experience, and the worst issues have been worked out as the platform is rapidly maturing.

s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago

It emulates the UI, so the fake is noticeable, and it will be hard for them to maintain perfect 1:1. RN on the other hand bridges the native UI w/ your code via a JS bridge. The downside is the bridge can be a bottleneck so you have to be careful how much you congest it. The result is being able to expose every native functionality and abstract it anyway you want using React extensions. Flutter plans to target desktop and web, but RN is ready for this today. Flutter requires you to learn Dart, a Google only language. RN you can use JS or TypeScript. Are you really going to trust that Flutter & Dart are around tomorrow w/ Google's record? Why oh why would you build your project with something that risky.

artsr 7y ago
Don't know why you're being downvoted. These all are perfectly reasonable concerns. I've seen many GUI frameworks fail because of a mix of these reasons.
- JaviFesser 7y ago
  Can you downvote in this website?
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
  Either Google or someone else w/ a vengeance follows me around and downvotes me haha.
xeonoex 7y ago
> It emulates the UI, so the fake is noticeable, and it will be hard for them to maintain perfect 1:1. I don't think 'emulate' is the right word. It renders it's UI. I don't get 'how the fake is noticeable'. It might be a little bit different, but the average person won't pick it up. To me, this is one of it's big upsides. It doesn't have to do all the translation to native. The performance is good. It's easy to write. No quirks of either OS. Though you do have to worry about the individual OS's if you're doing something lower level, but you have the power to do so, so that's still a plus.
- 7y ago