Dart is a high-level, interpreted programming language. It is developed by the Google and is used to make mobile, desktop, server and web applications. It is an alternative to JavaScript – at least, this is how the company positions this programming language. The first version of the interpreter became applicable in mid-autumn 2011. Dart started getting more attention in 2017 when Google officially announced Flutter beta for cross-platform mobile app development. Since then, the popularity of Dart has drastically increased.
It has a list of advantages. Let us consider the main ones.
1. The first advantage is that it is easy to learn. Any JavaScript programmer can quickly relearn how to write code in Dart. To do this, they only need to familiarize themselves with the basic principles of this programming language.
2. The second thing is about its availability of documentation. Since Google is developing the interpreter for Dart, all the features of the language are described in detail. This allows you to quickly get answers to almost any questions that may arise during the training process, or directly while writing code.
3.The third advantage is its high performance. Programs written in Dart tend to run faster than programs created in JavaScript.
4. Dart is very stable and it can be used to build production quality real-time applications. It is an object-oriented programming language with support for inheritance, interfaces and optional typing features.
5. It uses AOT and JIT compilation – Dart has the unique capability to handle both Ahead of time and Just in time compiling. In AOT, the Dart code can be directly converted into native machine code. While in the mode of JIT, it can be compiled for exceptionally fast development cycles and game-changing workflow.
6. If you want to start writing your first Dart program without any installation or configuration, there is DartPad for you. The DartPad interface is plain and simple. Write your code and click ‘Run’ to execute the code. DartPad introduces users to the world of Dart programming. The support for libraries in DartPad is restricted to the basic level.
Of course, mentioning the advantages, we should consider drawbacks too.
1. The first drawback is that Dart has very limited resources online and it’s hard to find solutions to problems. The reason for it is lack of a larger and cohesive developer communities, which will support you.
2. Dart is fairly new to the programmers and rarely used in the market. So if you will look for a job on this position, it will be harder to find a company with a vacancy of Dart programmer, because it hasn’t yet spread widely.
3.Dart is currently in development. That’s exciting, and it’s not something “wrong” with Dart, but if you start developing in Dart now, there’s a certain chance that the API will change, or that things won’t be documented fully or correctly, and the amount of information on the web is less than, for example, the amount you can find about jQuery.
4.The absence of native support. For a beautiful demonstration of dart’s capabilities, developers must bring it to users’ browsers. It turns out that to achieve at least 80% success, Dart developers must provide native support for it in all popular browsers.
To sum up, Dart is an interesting programming language with features to facilitate Web, mobile and command line apps. Its major advantages are its stability and ease of learning. In the case of Web applications, the combination with AngularDart makes it a very powerful tool. Generally, we think that despite its novelty, this programming language is worth your attention.
