It is a Google product, released in May 2017. An open-source user interfaces development kit. Basically, it is used to develop cross-platform applications for iOS, Linux, Android, and the web from a single codebase.
The first version of Flutter, which ran on the Android operating system, was known as Sky. It was unveiled at the Dart developer summit in 2015, also able to render consistently at 120 frames per second. Google announced Flutter Release Preview 2, during the keynote of Google Developer Days in Shanghai in September 2018. Then, the first stable version of the framework, Flutter 1.0, was released at the Live event. After a year, a new version of Flutter 1.12 was released at the Interactive event, and so on. Following, the 3.3 version of it was announced on 30 August 2022.
Framework architecture
The major components are:
- Dart platform
- Flutter engine
- Foundation library
- Design-specific widgets
- Flutter Development Tools
Dart Language
Dart is used for writing Flutter applications. It runs in Dart virtual machine, while writing and debugging an application, and features a just-in-time execution engine. Due to this, fast compilation times, as well as hot, reload with, which modifications to source files can be injected into a running application. Hence, for better performance, except for on the Web where code is trans piled to JavaScript, versions of its applications on all platforms use ahead-of-time(AOT) compilation. Also, Dart’s Pub package manager and software repository were inherited by Flutter to allow users to publish and use custom packages and Flutter-specific plugins.
Flutter Engine
Firstly, C++ is used to write Flutter’s engine. It provides low-level rendering support. However, it also interfaces with platform-specific SDKs such as those provided by Android and iOS to implement accessibility, files, network I/O and native plugin support.
Foundation Library
The Foundation library provides basic classes and functions, used to build applications, like APIs to communicate with the engine. The Dart is used to write the Foundation library.
Design-specific widgets
There are two sets of widgets that conform to specific design languages. The Material Design widgets implement Google’s design language of the same name, and The Cupertino widgets implement Apple’s iOS Human interface.
IDE support
It maintains official support for some IDEs and editors via plugins. These are: –
- IntelliJ IDEA
- Android Studio
- Visual Studio Code
- Emacs
Other IDEs could be used with community-supported plugins, or by using its tools from the command line.
Widgets
The basic component of the program is a widget. It can in turn consist of other widgets.
Basically, a widget describes the design, logic, and interaction of a UI element with an implementation similar to React.
Moreover, there are two fundamental types of widgets: stateful and stateless. For stateful widgets, call the setState() method to update an internal state and redraw. While stateless widgets only update if their inputs change, making them very efficient.
Although, for Flutter applications, widgets are the primary method. Moreover, they are able to bypass in favor of directly drawing on a canvas. This feature is sometimes used to implement game engines.
The Pros & Cons:
However, with any technology, there are some advantages and disadvantages to using it. There are some key points, both positive and negative, on Flutter, to give a better understanding of when it will be useful.
Pros
- Flutter enables us to make instant changes in the applications.
- Flutter-based applications are very smooth in their performance.
- A single code base, testing, and quality assurance usually take much less time.
- Flutter is very fast and efficient for developing.
Cons
- The applications made with Flutter are weighty.
- Applications, Flutter based, are not supported by browsers as of now.
