FLUTTER : The future of cross platform application Development

Vaishnavi Barge
GDSC DYPCOE
Published in
5 min readFeb 11, 2023

| GDSC-DYPCOE X GDSC PUNE | FLUTTER FORWARD

What is Flutter?

Flutter is like a magic wand for developers, conjuring up beautiful and responsive mobile apps with just a wave of their keyboard. With Flutter, you can cast a single spell that works on both iOS and Android, saving you from the hassle of learning different incantations for each platform. Plus, with its hot reload feature, you can see your changes instantly, without having to wait for a long and boring compile spell. The Dart programming language and Skia graphics engine add to its power, making Flutter the wizard’s choice for creating fantastic mobile apps. Just remember, “with great power comes great responsibility”… and a lot of coding.

Explore more on https://docs.flutter.dev/

Why Flutter?

Flutter is like a superhero of the app development world, swooping in to save the day with its lightning-fast speed and stunning looks. It’s got the power to create apps that will make users say “Wow!”, with its impressive collection of flashy widgets that can be customized to suit any style. And when it comes to performance, Flutter apps are like the Flash, always quick and nimble with smooth animations that leave other apps in the dust. With the hot reload feature, developers can change their app faster than Clark Kent can change into Superman, and with the ever-growing community of Flutter fanatics, there’s always someone around to help you save the day.

Here is the roadway to heaven or should I say roadmap to Flutter development :)

https://roadmap.sh/flutter

Some popular apps that use Flutter today :

• Google Ads

• Alibaba Group

• Reflectly

• Birch Finance

• Tencent

• BMW

• Abbey Road Studios

• Hamilton Musical

• Coach Yourself

• Hookle Social Media

LET’S DIVE INTO FLUTTER…

How to get started with Flutter?

https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-flutter-dart-to-build-ios-android-apps/

What is Dart ?

Dart is like a magic wand for programmers, developed by Google to make their lives easier. Whether it’s for web, server, or mobile apps, Dart is the go-to choice for building applications. With its C-style syntax, it’s got the power to cast spells such as classes, interfaces, generics, and asynchronous programming.

In Flutter, Dart is used as the primary programming language. Flutter is a UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. Dart’s strong typing and fast development cycle make it well suited for building high-performance apps with Flutter.

Explore and play around with Dart here : https://dartpad.dev/

Flutter widgets

Flutter widgets are like the building blocks of a castle in the sky, piecing together the fantastical world of an app’s user interface. They are the master architects, carefully constructing the visual elements that make the app look enchanting, with everything from simple text and images to elaborate lists, grids, and animations. And just like a wizard’s spellbook, Flutter has a rich collection of pre-designed widgets at the ready, waiting to be cast and bring your app to life.

Some of the most commonly used Flutter widgets include:

• Container: A box that can hold other widgets and apply padding, margins, and borders.

• Text: A widget for displaying text.

• Image: A widget for displaying images.

• RaisedButton: A Material Design raised button.

• Scaffold: A basic layout structure that provides a app bar, body, and bottom navigation bar.

To learn more about widgets, follow the link

https://docs.flutter.dev/development/ui/widgets

Pros of Flutter over other android development frameworks:

• Fast Development: Flutter’s “hot reload” feature allows developers to see the changes they make to the app in real-time, speeding up the development process.

• Beautiful and Customizable UI: Flutter comes with a rich collection of pre-designed widgets and a modern graphics engine that make it easy to create beautiful, smooth, and responsive user interfaces.

• Single Codebase: Flutter allows developers to build high-quality, native apps for both iOS and Android from a single codebase, reducing the time and effort required to maintain separate codebases for different platforms.

• Open-Source: Flutter is open-source and actively maintained by Google and developers have access to a wealth of resources, tutorials, and plugins.

Cons of Flutter:

• Limited Library: Although Flutter has a growing library of packages and plugins, it is still relatively limited compared to other mature mobile development platforms like React Native or Xamarin.

• Steep Learning Curve: While Flutter is easy to pick up for developers with experience in other mobile development frameworks, it does have a steeper learning curve for those who are new to mobile app development.

• Larger APK Size: The size of a Flutter app can be larger compared to native apps.

• Performance Overhead: Although Flutter has good performance, there may be some performance overhead compared to native apps because Flutter relies on its own framework and graphics engine.

In conclusion, Flutter is like a knight in shining armor for mobile app developers, offering all the tools and resources needed to conquer the kingdom of cross-platform app development. From its speedy development cycle to its dazzling user interfaces, Flutter has it all. With a bustling community of developers and the backing of big companies like Google, it’s no wonder Flutter is becoming the preferred choice for many. With its ability to create apps that are both a feast for the eyes and a joy to use, Flutter is sure to rule the app development world for many moons to come.

--

--