Dart is a Good Language and Is The Reason Why Flutter Succeeds

First off, let me preface my argument with these:

1. Dart is in the middle-upper section of most loved / dreaded language in stackoverflow survey.
2. Dart is not an all-purpose language. The main programming domain which dart tackles is mobile app development, but for the sake of argument, I’ll try to separate flutter and dart.

Without further ado, let’s get into the article

Recently I read an article explaining that dart is a terrible language. I disagree. During the time I’ve been using dart, it’s really good at doing what it’s doing and fairly bad at other areas. Let’s first explore the advantages of dart compared to other languages:

1. No new keyword for class instantiation
   Since dart is a frontend-heavy language dealing with classes, the removal of thenew keyword is really refreshing since we don’t need to add new every time we instantiate a new widget.
2. Named arguments saves our eyes
   In my opinion, the way dart uses named argument are almost there. The way it works is unlike javascript where we have to add curly braces in front of function call. It’s also unlike kotlin which allow us to either put the argument name or not. It gives us an option which we have to adhere if we want to use named argument, and it flows pretty naturally when we call a function with named argument.
   My only qualms with it is the required keyword not being the default behavior, which forces me to use the keyword in a lot of places.
3. It is similar to typescript
   Typescript being the language that ranks 4th on Stackoverflow's most loved language list and one of the most used languages for web and mobile development makes it easier for Dart to gain popularity due to its similarity with typescript. Some similar features are revolving around its dynamically typed language, the usage of const keyword to declare variables (in dart final & const are similar), the syntax of callback and arrow function, etc.
4. It have no good competition … at least until Kotlin Multiplatform
   React native is popular for its slow performance, Progressive web apps are getting progressively worse, js frameworks like ionic multiplatform never gets the hype, the list goes on. I have heard about kotlin multiplatform and kotlin compose getting some attention but for the foreseeable future, dart remains the best choice for multiplatform AOT language.
5. Its beautiful formatter & debugging support, Good ecosystem in general
   Dart have one of the best development tool for mobile development, period. Its debugging tool and the ability to add breakpoint midway, to see the live reload happening so quickly, etc. Also, Dart formatter which the previous article criticized is actually good. You need to put trailing commas for separate arguments to be in a different line.

See the trailing comma in Icons.abc?

When trailing comma is not used

I would argue that it’s a really nice feature, being able to either clump the widget by not using trailing commas or separating the lines by using it. Though, I guess you can make an argument out of this

All being said, dart is not an insane language. Some of the itch points that the aforementioned article said is true such as:

• Adding an underscore for private method is a questionable feature. This makes it harder (for me at least) to separate the private/public method since I’m used to looking for the private keyword.
• Reflection is basically nonexistent in dart. Please, if anything, make the reflection better for easier testing purposes google. 💌

Other than that, I’d treat dart as I would treat javascript. An easy language to use for a specific domain which is also a decent language for scripting purposes.