Dart Programming Language

A best-of-both-worlds language for outstanding mobile UIs

When your business realizes it’s time to expand into mobile and web application development, it will quickly become apparent you’ll need to either get your current developer trained on the languages, tools, and hottest trends in UI design/development, or complement your team with software engineers already familiar with them.

The language front is of special importance. There are highly popular alternatives like JavaScript, Kotlin, C++, C#, Python, PHP, and Swift. But there’s another language you shouldn’t overlook: Dart. Developed by Google, Dart was designed for client applications, specifically mobile and web apps. It can also be used for server and desktop applications, so it’s quite flexible.

Dart was originally created by Lars Bak and Kasper Lund and was first revealed on November 14, 2013. The developer’s original intent was to “fix the web” by replacing JavaScript in the browser. That failed when Google announced it wouldn’t include the DartVM in Chrome. Instead, their efforts continued, by way of the Dart-to-JavaScript compiler, which was aided by the fact that the language was created to work in multiple compilation modes. Thus it’s been a multi-platform language since its inception.

Dart can run natively or be interpreted by its own virtual machine, DartVM, on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS and it is often compared to Java because many see it as “boring.”

In 2017, the idea that Dart was boring very quickly transformed when Google released the alpha version of Flutter, which used Dart to create mobile apps for Android and iOS. Thanks to Flutter, Dart found new hope and would continue to gain serious popularity.

What is Dart?

We’ve already established that Dart is a multi-platform programming language that is popular among web and mobile app developers. Beyond that, Dart is a statically-typed language (which means variable type checking happens at compile-time). But one of the key aspects you should consider for mobile app development is that you will most likely be using the following:

Flutter framework for development powered by the Dart platform
DartVM for instant hot reload developer cycle.
Dart AOT native code compiler for producing fast production code.

Dart is important because:

It's both a compiled, type-safe language and a scripting language.
It transpiles to JavaScript for use on the front end of your web apps.
It runs on nearly every platform.
It has a similar syntax to C# and Java.

You will also find 4 different ways to run Dart code:

Transpiled as JavaScript so that it can run in mainstream web browsers.
Standalone, using the Dart Software Development Kit, which allows Dart code to run from the command line interface.
Ahead-of-time compiled into native instruction sets.
Native, using the dart2native compiler, which creates self-contained, native executables.

The 4 methods make Dart a very flexible language, one that can be employed for numerous use cases.

What can you build with Dart?

Dart can be used to build numerous applications and services. And even if your developer selects Flutter as their primary developer toolkit, they’ll still be using Dart.

With Dart, your developers can build:

Mobile applications
Web applications
Desktop applications
Server-side applications/services
Smart display applications

One outstanding quality of Dart is that changes can be made iteratively. That means you can use hot-reload to see changes in the app as it runs. This is crucial to agile development, so your developers don’t have to reload the entire app to see small changes they’d made to the UI (or other elements of the applications). And because Dart was specifically designed for the creation of User Interfaces, your developers will be able to create exciting, user-friendly experiences for mobile and web users.

Dart also includes UI-centric developer features, such as:

async-await - for interfaces that contain event-driven code using isolate-based concurrency.
Can build UIs that include sound null safety (which means variables can’t contain null unless you specify).
Supports the spread operator (for expanding collections) and collection if for customizing the UI for specific platforms.

Dart is most certainly a modern language for building modern interfaces.

Who uses Dart?

There are a number of companies currently using Dart, including:

Google
News
Ag Flow
Blossom
Useinsider
Agora
Ninja Van
Teukoo

And tools that integrate with Dart include:

Flutter
Strapi
Google Code Prettify
Appwrite
AngularDart
Aqueduct
DartPad
pub. dev

Why should you use Dart?

We’ve already stated that Dart is a flexible language. But there are several other reasons why Dart should be on your company radar, such as:

Dart has been embraced by the open-source community.
Dart is a very easy language to learn.
Dart is supported by a large number of third-party tools.
Dart is robust and always growing.
Dart is backed by Google.
Dart solves complicated problems with a high level of efficiency.
Dart is an amazing toolkit for user interfaces.

Dart also includes UI-centric developer features, such as:

async-await - for interfaces that contain event-driven code using isolate-based concurrency.
Can build UIs that include sound null safety (which means variables can’t contain null unless you specify).
Supports the spread operator (for expanding collections) and collection if for customizing the UI for specific platforms.

Dart is most certainly a modern language for building modern interfaces.

Conclusion

If your company is looking to expand its offerings to include mobile or web applications, you owe it to yourself (and your developers) to add Dart into the mix. If you want agile deployments within the mobile or web app space, you can certainly do a lot worse than Dart.