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Hello, I'm from the Flutter desktop team. Thank you for the excellent feedback, this is truly invaluable. Here are some updates from our side: 1. Custom conte

Hello, I'm from the Flutter desktop team. Thank you for the excellent feedback, this is truly invaluable. Here are some updates from our side: 1. Custom context menus - We just added this feature in Flutter 3.7, which was released two weeks ago. Please give this a try and let us know what you think! 2. Multi-window - This is a high priority for the Flutter team, we have several engineers working on this project currently. Here's a video that gives an early preview on multi-window support: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtB-teu57vw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtB-teu57vw Feel free to let us know if you have additional feedback; this helps us prioritize on what's most valuable for our community!

livinglist 4y ago
Hi there, I have been a happy flutter user for quite some time now, keep up them good work!
- mhoad 4y ago
  Same, contrary to some of the comments here I’ve had nothing but great experiences coming from a purely web background previously.
  - synergy20 4y ago
    same here,keep up the great work. by the way dart is my favorite cross platform language nowadays beyond flutter.
    - orangecat 4y ago
      dart is my favorite cross platform language nowadays beyond flutter Yeah, it's very underrated. I find it nearly as expressive as Python with far better maintainability and performance.
    - munificent 4y ago
      I work on Dart, and I'm glad you like it. I always like getting feedback from users. If there was something you could change about Dart, what would you pick? What would you keep just as it is?
      - allenbrunson 4y ago
        i will start by saying i love dart. i learned it solely so i could make flutter apps. but now, three or four years later, i can say for certain that i love dart a lot more than i love flutter, which i have mixed feelings about. i've learned at least a half a dozen languages over the years, and dart is now my favorite. so much so that i am converting existing projects to it. for example, i have a series of scripts i wrote, in python, to automate away the boring parts of my job, which i am now converting to dart. at this point, for me, trying to get anything done in python is like wading through molasses. (like, why does almost any change to a python implementation file cause you to also have to revisit the imports section? ugh, i hate that so much.) my number one change would be to add configuration options to the formatting tool you wrote. i can see why consistency is a virtue for large projects, but for me, it is strictly a hindrance. programming is thinking, and i really don't like you dictating the way i ought to think. (yeah, i know you won't do it, but that's my big one.) my second big change would be to allow me to implement a big dart class in two or more implementation files. the business logic in the flagship flutter app i maintain is getting unbelievably complicated, and large chunks of it cannot be moved out of the one object it is in, due to inheritance reasons.
        munificent 4y ago
        > my number one change would be to add configuration options to the formatting tool you wrote. i can see why consistency is a virtue for large projects, but for me, it is strictly a hindrance. Yeah, I get that. In personal projects, there's something to be said for just Having It Your Way. But the formatter is focused on ecosystem level improvements where configurability is an anti-feature. > my second big change would be to allow me to implement a big dart class in two or more implementation files. You can sometimes accomplish that by moving chunks of methods out into seperate mixins and mixing them into your class. I think mixins are generally underused in Dart. But if that doesn't work, the proposal for augmentation libraries would probably help: https://github.com/dart-lang/language/blob/master/working/augmentation-libraries/feature-specification.md https://github.com/dart-lang/language/blob/master/working/au... I'm glad you're enjoying Dart!
malkia 4y ago
Is impeler going to affect (in good way) the performance/latency on desktop too? (I think it's mostly for iOS now, right)?
- mhoad 4y ago
  The plan AFAIK is to make it the default everywhere but they are just rolling out each platform in some kind of prioritised order.
- loic-sharma 4y ago
  Yup, but we're focused on mobile first as these are the most resource constrained platforms. We're also experimenting with 3D support in Flutter using Impeller. Check out these demos from Flutter Forward: https://youtu.be/zKQYGKAe5W8?t=6955 https://youtu.be/zKQYGKAe5W8?t=6955 You can learn more about Impeller here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKrYWC_SDxQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKrYWC_SDxQ
  - pen2l 4y ago
    Something being highlighted about Flutter is that it ultimately compiles to native code so unlike RN which transpiles to native widgets, its UI animations should technically be buttery smooth. But in watching the flutter announcement video https://youtu.be/Nu5m1FiS5X4?t=60 https://youtu.be/Nu5m1FiS5X4?t=60 (timestamped link) on the screen as menus are opening and the mouse cursor is shown selecting different items, there is... a very perceptible stutter and lag. What is that due to?
    - munificent 4y ago
      There are a lot of levels of indirection here: * A video on YouTube... * Of a livestream... * Of a video made by a separate video production team... * Based a slideshow (probably Google Sheets)... * Containing a pre-rendered video... * Of a screen recording... * Of a Flutter desktop app. Any and all of those can introduce latency or lag in the video. It's a great form for showing users features, but probably not a great way to evaluate UI performance, unfortunately.
dsabanin 4y ago
Thank you for the great work! Flutter and Dart are awesome and keep getting better. I'm coming from the land of Scala, Erlang, Clojure, TypeScript, and I'm loving the general approach to the engineering and design that Flutter and Dart teams have. Kudos!
invpt 4y ago
That's great to hear! When I get the chance, I'll update the article to note that custom context menus are actually supported now.
davidkuennen 4y ago
First of all: Thank you for your outstanding work! And sorry to ask this here, but how have the recent layoffs affected the flutter team? We're using flutter as our main framework for our app and it's quite important. The layoffs have sparked some fears that flutter development might slow down.
- loic-sharma 4y ago
  Google's Flutter team was affected by layoffs and we lost some wonderful folks. However, the number of Googlers working directly on Flutter has grown substantially in the last year. Please keep in mind that Flutter is a community project. Google is one of Flutter's many sponsors, many of our contributors are from other companies.
  - nileshtrivedi 4y ago
    > Flutter is a community project A quick WHOIS search for flutter.dev and pub.dev domains tells me that this is not really the case.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - plq 4y ago
      Is there a CLA? Do I have to waive ownership of my contributions for my code to be merged? If yes then it's not a community project. Domain ownership has little to do with it. Look at who owns github.com :)
      - satvikpendem 4y ago
        CLAs are always a good idea if one is maintaining an open source project. I'm not going to track down every single contributor who made some small PR perhaps, just to make a license change.
        4y ago
never_inline 4y ago
Last time I used flutter for desktop, setting custom window size required an external package. I think it's a significant use case for many people.
- loic-sharma 4y ago
  Agreed! We will add support for window customization as part of the multi-window effort.
  - dsabanin 4y ago
    Do you have any pointers for someone who would love to contribute to Flutter and Dart as an open source contributor? Is there some guideline for what kind of contributions will be considered, areas where contributions are desired, etc?
    - loic-sharma 4y ago
      Please check the contribution guide: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.... We strive to be an open community. Anyone can become a Flutter team member if they contribute frequently :)
      - dsabanin 4y ago
        Thank you! I think that's a great attitude and a key to the long-term success.
    - timsneath 4y ago
      We've got a guide here that covers some of these areas: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.... For a lot of first-time contributors, improved documentation and added tests are a great way to dip toes into the water. We also have a 'good first contribution' tag on our issues log that might be a source of inspiration: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+contribution%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Ai...
dr_kiszonka 4y ago
Hi! I was wondering about the coexistence of Flutter and Kotlin in Android development. Is there any good write-up to help devs to choose between them depending on the use case?
- account-5 4y ago
  Not who you want an answer from but for me if I was writing an android only app I'd go for kotlin, if I wanted android, iOS, desktop, and web I'd go dart/flutter.

livinglist 4y ago

Hi there, I have been a happy flutter user for quite some time now, keep up them good work!

mhoad 4y ago
Same, contrary to some of the comments here I’ve had nothing but great experiences coming from a purely web background previously.
- synergy20 4y ago
  same here,keep up the great work. by the way dart is my favorite cross platform language nowadays beyond flutter.
  - orangecat 4y ago
    dart is my favorite cross platform language nowadays beyond flutter Yeah, it's very underrated. I find it nearly as expressive as Python with far better maintainability and performance.
  - munificent 4y ago
    I work on Dart, and I'm glad you like it. I always like getting feedback from users. If there was something you could change about Dart, what would you pick? What would you keep just as it is?
    - allenbrunson 4y ago
      i will start by saying i love dart. i learned it solely so i could make flutter apps. but now, three or four years later, i can say for certain that i love dart a lot more than i love flutter, which i have mixed feelings about. i've learned at least a half a dozen languages over the years, and dart is now my favorite. so much so that i am converting existing projects to it. for example, i have a series of scripts i wrote, in python, to automate away the boring parts of my job, which i am now converting to dart. at this point, for me, trying to get anything done in python is like wading through molasses. (like, why does almost any change to a python implementation file cause you to also have to revisit the imports section? ugh, i hate that so much.) my number one change would be to add configuration options to the formatting tool you wrote. i can see why consistency is a virtue for large projects, but for me, it is strictly a hindrance. programming is thinking, and i really don't like you dictating the way i ought to think. (yeah, i know you won't do it, but that's my big one.) my second big change would be to allow me to implement a big dart class in two or more implementation files. the business logic in the flagship flutter app i maintain is getting unbelievably complicated, and large chunks of it cannot be moved out of the one object it is in, due to inheritance reasons.
      - munificent 4y ago
        > my number one change would be to add configuration options to the formatting tool you wrote. i can see why consistency is a virtue for large projects, but for me, it is strictly a hindrance. Yeah, I get that. In personal projects, there's something to be said for just Having It Your Way. But the formatter is focused on ecosystem level improvements where configurability is an anti-feature. > my second big change would be to allow me to implement a big dart class in two or more implementation files. You can sometimes accomplish that by moving chunks of methods out into seperate mixins and mixing them into your class. I think mixins are generally underused in Dart. But if that doesn't work, the proposal for augmentation libraries would probably help: https://github.com/dart-lang/language/blob/master/working/augmentation-libraries/feature-specification.md https://github.com/dart-lang/language/blob/master/working/au... I'm glad you're enjoying Dart!

malkia 4y ago

Is impeler going to affect (in good way) the performance/latency on desktop too? (I think it's mostly for iOS now, right)?

mhoad 4y ago
The plan AFAIK is to make it the default everywhere but they are just rolling out each platform in some kind of prioritised order.
loic-sharma 4y ago
Yup, but we're focused on mobile first as these are the most resource constrained platforms. We're also experimenting with 3D support in Flutter using Impeller. Check out these demos from Flutter Forward: https://youtu.be/zKQYGKAe5W8?t=6955 https://youtu.be/zKQYGKAe5W8?t=6955 You can learn more about Impeller here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKrYWC_SDxQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKrYWC_SDxQ
- pen2l 4y ago
  Something being highlighted about Flutter is that it ultimately compiles to native code so unlike RN which transpiles to native widgets, its UI animations should technically be buttery smooth. But in watching the flutter announcement video https://youtu.be/Nu5m1FiS5X4?t=60 https://youtu.be/Nu5m1FiS5X4?t=60 (timestamped link) on the screen as menus are opening and the mouse cursor is shown selecting different items, there is... a very perceptible stutter and lag. What is that due to?
  - munificent 4y ago
    There are a lot of levels of indirection here: * A video on YouTube... * Of a livestream... * Of a video made by a separate video production team... * Based a slideshow (probably Google Sheets)... * Containing a pre-rendered video... * Of a screen recording... * Of a Flutter desktop app. Any and all of those can introduce latency or lag in the video. It's a great form for showing users features, but probably not a great way to evaluate UI performance, unfortunately.

dsabanin 4y ago

Thank you for the great work! Flutter and Dart are awesome and keep getting better. I'm coming from the land of Scala, Erlang, Clojure, TypeScript, and I'm loving the general approach to the engineering and design that Flutter and Dart teams have. Kudos!

invpt 4y ago

That's great to hear! When I get the chance, I'll update the article to note that custom context menus are actually supported now.

davidkuennen 4y ago

First of all: Thank you for your outstanding work! And sorry to ask this here, but how have the recent layoffs affected the flutter team? We're using flutter as our main framework for our app and it's quite important. The layoffs have sparked some fears that flutter development might slow down.

loic-sharma 4y ago
Google's Flutter team was affected by layoffs and we lost some wonderful folks. However, the number of Googlers working directly on Flutter has grown substantially in the last year. Please keep in mind that Flutter is a community project. Google is one of Flutter's many sponsors, many of our contributors are from other companies.
- nileshtrivedi 4y ago
  > Flutter is a community project A quick WHOIS search for flutter.dev and pub.dev domains tells me that this is not really the case.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - plq 4y ago
    Is there a CLA? Do I have to waive ownership of my contributions for my code to be merged? If yes then it's not a community project. Domain ownership has little to do with it. Look at who owns github.com :)
    - satvikpendem 4y ago
      CLAs are always a good idea if one is maintaining an open source project. I'm not going to track down every single contributor who made some small PR perhaps, just to make a license change.
      - 4y ago

never_inline 4y ago

Last time I used flutter for desktop, setting custom window size required an external package. I think it's a significant use case for many people.

loic-sharma 4y ago
Agreed! We will add support for window customization as part of the multi-window effort.
- dsabanin 4y ago
  Do you have any pointers for someone who would love to contribute to Flutter and Dart as an open source contributor? Is there some guideline for what kind of contributions will be considered, areas where contributions are desired, etc?
  - loic-sharma 4y ago
    Please check the contribution guide: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.... We strive to be an open community. Anyone can become a Flutter team member if they contribute frequently :)
    - dsabanin 4y ago
      Thank you! I think that's a great attitude and a key to the long-term success.
  - timsneath 4y ago
    We've got a guide here that covers some of these areas: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.... For a lot of first-time contributors, improved documentation and added tests are a great way to dip toes into the water. We also have a 'good first contribution' tag on our issues log that might be a source of inspiration: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+contribution%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Ai...

dr_kiszonka 4y ago

Hi! I was wondering about the coexistence of Flutter and Kotlin in Android development. Is there any good write-up to help devs to choose between them depending on the use case?

account-5 4y ago
Not who you want an answer from but for me if I was writing an android only app I'd go for kotlin, if I wanted android, iOS, desktop, and web I'd go dart/flutter.