What is flutter, and why is it used?

What is flutter?

Flutter is an open-source and free UI platform developed by Google and allows users to engage and create innovative and uncomplicated cross-platform apps with a single base code. In essence, Flutter is used to build cross-platform applications such as Android, IOS, and macOS.

Among many other features, flutter enables users to create multi-platform without having to write the code for each platform, for example, android, separately. You can use the same code for two or more platforms; you only need one base code.  The developed apps will behave the same on different platforms regardless of the fact that they use a single codebase.

What language does flutter use?

Flutter uses a fairly new programming language called Dart. Although it was established in 2011, it has seen many advancements in recent years and has created a rage among new app developers.

Dart, also developed by Google, can be described as a new-age, object-oriented language that allows developers to edit, create, curate, and experiment with codes and ideas. Dart’s syntax structure resembles many other object-oriented languages, such as C++ and Javascript.

“Flutter implements most of its system (compositing, gestures, animation, framework, widgets, etc) in Dart (a modern, concise, object-oriented language) that developers can easily approach to read, change, replace, or remove.” —flutter.dev

We have enlisted some basic details of the flutter system below for a better understanding.

Composition system in a flutter: Composition refers to transferring functions from one class to another so that the output of one class becomes the input of the other class. Composition refers to combining functions to form complex functions. In flutter, the composition is widely used in creating widgets; that is, it plays a role in making your app’s user interface.

Gestures system in a flutter: this system has two layers, namely, pointers and gestures

1. Pointers:  the first layer would describe the location and movement of pointers, i.e., their point of contact on the screen (pointer down event), movement of the pointer from one place to another (PointerMoveEvent) when there is no contact on the screenPointerUpEvent and when pointer’s interaction event is canceled (PointerCancelEvent).

2. Gestures: the second layer highlights “semantic actions’’ in other words, it is characterized by the movement of two or more individual pointer events such as tap, drag, and scale. These can transmit multiple pointer events corresponding to the gesture’s lifecycle. Some of the known gestures include tap, double tap, drag, etc.

3. The animation system in a flutter: Animation enhances the overall appearance of UI while making it more intuitive and user-friendly. Flutter renders animation support to its user for creating a more polished version of apps. 

4. Flutter framework: flutter’s framework is designed to ease the developers; many top-level features are incorporated as packages and can be used by developers. Some of these packages cover a wider domain, for example, apple authentication and animation. This framework also supports and implements many plugins such as webview and camera in addition to platform-neutral features like animations, characters, etc. 

Why is flutter used?

In the past, building an app was costly; developers were required to write separate codes for different platforms. But not anymore; Flutter has provided developers with a platform for building platform-agnostic apps. It has enabled developers to create efficient apps that offer quality tech, and speed and cater to all businesses and firms.

Here are a few advantages and reasons why flutter is used.

• it allows developers to even share User interface code as well as user interface, a framework that only flutters offers.
• You can create quality and native-like apps which can be tested on flutter before launching it.
• The apps developed on flutter are less costly as compared to native apps.
• Previously, swift/objective-C languages were used for building applications for ios and Kotlin/Java dealt with Android applications. However, it has unified the two platforms with the provision of using a single base code
• “Hot reload” features allows developers to go through all the applied changes made in the code without altering the current state.
• It allows developers to review changes while also rendering high development speed.

Bottom line:

Flutter has brought great advancements and ease to the app development industry. You do not need to be an expert at programming, It enables developers to start building platform-neutral applications with new age and easy-to-understand language called Dart. Applications built with flutter provide efficiency, and reliability and are way more inexpensive than natively compiled apps. In this article, we have added information regarding what is flutter and why it is used. We hope you will benefit from this article.