What is Google Flutter?
According to Wikipedia, Flutter is an open-source UI software development kit created by Google.
Using flutter we can create an app for Android, Windows, Linux, Fuchsia OS, iOS, MAC, etc. Now we can create web apps using Flutter.
It is a single codebase framework because we can write code in it and run it on many platforms. In Flutter we can use the Dart programming language.
Flutter History:
Flutter was first introduced publicly at the 2015 dart developer conference. Flutter 1.0 was launched officially on 4th, December 2018. And this was the first stable version of Flutter. The second version Flutter 1.12 launched on December 11th, 2019.
Dart SDK Version 2.8 and Flutter Version 1.17.0 launched on 6th May 2020. In this version of Flutter, we get support of metal API, improve performance for iOS devices, new material widgets, and network tracking.
When it was introduced, its name was ‘sky’, then it was changed to Flutter.
Supported platforms
- Web
- Android
- Linux
- iOS
- Mac
- Windows
Flutter has two types of widgets Material design widget and Cupertino widget. Material design widget supports both android and iOS, using this widget we can create a material layout. But the Cupertino widget supports only iOS, used for creating iOS apps.
In Flutter everything is a widget. So when the app runs then each element of the app is drawn on a blank canvas.
Flutter Features
- Single Codebase
In Flutter we only use a single programming language called dart, and we can write one code and run on many different platforms.
- Everything is a widget in Flutter
In Flutter we can get some pre-built widgets. Using this can easily create applications.
- Flutter has a Skia Graphic Engine
In flutter has a graphic engine that is called Skia. Skia paints everything(every widget of the App) on the screen.
- Layout Responsiveness
In Flutter we can get a responsive layout. The layout we create using the widget is responsive, which means that the application will support the screen of any mobile.
- Hot Reload and Hot Re-start
The hot reload feature helps you to easily and quickly build UIs, add features, and fix bugs in the application.
Hot restart destroys the preserved states of the app, and the code gets fully compiled again and starts from the default state. It takes more time than hot reload but takes less time than the full restart function.
- Minimum File Size
If you create an application using Flutter then the file size is too small than other frameworks.
Future Growth
It releases in 2018 and in a very short period it has become very popular. Nowadays many big tech giants use Flutter on their products. So far, more than 20,000 applications have been created with Flutter, and if we talk about their downloads, then it has exceeded 5 billion.
Some popular companies that uses flutter
Alibaba, BMW, Dream11, eBay, Google, and Tencent etc.
So in my opinion, if you learn flutter then it will be a good skill for your career.
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