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Dart is one of those languages that has always felt obscure to me, even though there appears to be a lot of work put into it. What are folks using it for?

by dom96 4y ago

jolexxa 4y ago
It’s used with Flutter, Google’s app development framework. I really enjoy Dart as a language, but it is fairly young and missing a few conveniences (such as data classes). It also can’t compile to dynamic libraries, only executables. Despite that, it is very pleasant if you enjoy managed languages.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
hota_mazi 4y ago
It's used in Flutter exclusively, and since Flutter is hardly used at all, it's a pretty unknown language, and will probably always remain so. It doesn't help Dart that Kotlin and Swift have been null safe languages for a decade now.
- amgreg 4y ago
  I wouldn’t dismiss Flutter out of hand. It’s more popular even than React Native! https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/why-flutter-is-the-most-popular-cross-platform-mobile-sdk/ https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/why-flutter-is-the-mos...
  - jimbob45 4y ago
    More popular by the metric of...StackOverflow question tags. I'm not sure that I would use that as my preferred metric for language popularity.
    - wizofaus 4y ago
      Indeed the perfect language/tech stack would be immensely popular and never have any SO questions, as everything would be obvious and easy to figure out without help...
      - UncleEntity 4y ago
        … which is why hairdryers have warnings like “do not use while sleeping”. I mean…
  - hota_mazi 4y ago
    Not a very meaningful metric. Take a look at job boards and see how many job postings you find for React compared to Flutter.
thomascgalvin 4y ago
I taught myself Dart a couple of years ago, and enjoyed the language, but never found a compelling use for it. For anything I might do in Dart, there's a better alternative. For backend stuff, I'm going to write in Java or Kotlin. For frontend stuff, I'm going to write in JS or TypeScript. I like Flutter, but Flutter by itself isn't reason enough to adopt Dart. Long term, if Jetpack for Desktop actually takes off, I don't see any reason to write in anything but Kotlin.
sroussey 4y ago
I think there was a fork of Chrome that included Dart as another language runtime alongside JavaScript.
- digitalsankhara 4y ago
  That rings a bell with me. I think is was during the early days of Dart and it was a special Chromium build if memory serves me.
- markdog12 4y ago
  Yep, Dartium. That ship has sailed years ago.
- jamesfinlayson 4y ago
  That was Dart 1.0 which I think was weakly typed.

Dart is one of those languages that has always felt obscure to me, even though there appears to be a lot of work put into it. What are folks using it for?

by dom96 4y ago

Dart is one of those languages that has always felt obscure to me, even though there appears to be a lot of work put into it. What are folks using it for?

jolexxa 4y ago

It’s used with Flutter, Google’s app development framework. I really enjoy Dart as a language, but it is fairly young and missing a few conveniences (such as data classes). It also can’t compile to dynamic libraries, only executables. Despite that, it is very pleasant if you enjoy managed languages.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

hota_mazi 4y ago

It's used in Flutter exclusively, and since Flutter is hardly used at all, it's a pretty unknown language, and will probably always remain so. It doesn't help Dart that Kotlin and Swift have been null safe languages for a decade now.

amgreg 4y ago
I wouldn’t dismiss Flutter out of hand. It’s more popular even than React Native! https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/why-flutter-is-the-most-popular-cross-platform-mobile-sdk/ https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/02/21/why-flutter-is-the-mos...
- jimbob45 4y ago
  More popular by the metric of...StackOverflow question tags. I'm not sure that I would use that as my preferred metric for language popularity.
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    Indeed the perfect language/tech stack would be immensely popular and never have any SO questions, as everything would be obvious and easy to figure out without help...
    - UncleEntity 4y ago
      … which is why hairdryers have warnings like “do not use while sleeping”. I mean…
- hota_mazi 4y ago
  Not a very meaningful metric. Take a look at job boards and see how many job postings you find for React compared to Flutter.

thomascgalvin 4y ago

I taught myself Dart a couple of years ago, and enjoyed the language, but never found a compelling use for it. For anything I might do in Dart, there's a better alternative. For backend stuff, I'm going to write in Java or Kotlin. For frontend stuff, I'm going to write in JS or TypeScript. I like Flutter, but Flutter by itself isn't reason enough to adopt Dart. Long term, if Jetpack for Desktop actually takes off, I don't see any reason to write in anything but Kotlin.

sroussey 4y ago

I think there was a fork of Chrome that included Dart as another language runtime alongside JavaScript.

digitalsankhara 4y ago
That rings a bell with me. I think is was during the early days of Dart and it was a special Chromium build if memory serves me.
markdog12 4y ago
Yep, Dartium. That ship has sailed years ago.
jamesfinlayson 4y ago
That was Dart 1.0 which I think was weakly typed.