Dart Vs JavaScript- A Comparison That You Must Know

 

Javascript gained popularity when it came in the world of cross platform mobile app development and server-side development. Node.js framework can be used for both frontend and backend development, so it became more popular among web developers. With the use of React native by facebook, mobile app developers also started to shift towards Javascript. So javascript is holding the position of most popular programming language. Google created the Flutter framework for cross-platform mobile application development. Flutter framework uses Dart programming language. Most of you might have a question of what’s the difference between dart and javascript. How do they differ? To know the answer to all this, let us see the comparison of Dart vs javascript.

What Is Dart?

Dart is a programming language used by Flutter framework. It was initially used at Google to build server, web and mobile applications. Dart compiles the source code like javascript. It gained more attention in 2017 when google announced Flutter beta for cross platform mobile app development. These days developers are eager to adopt Flutter, but they nee dto learn Dart to get started.

Advantages Of Dart-

• Dart is open-source
• It is supported by Google and runs seamlessly on Google Cloud platform
• Faster than Javascript
• It is type-safe and compiled with both AOT and JIT compilers
• Dart is scalable across projects
• Extensively used for flutter mobile UI framework

What Is Javascript?

Javascript is a language for rendering web pages along with HTML and CSS technologies. Later on, javascript extended its arm to server-side and mobile app development. Javascript is a mature, stable programming language and supports both OOPS and functional programming style. Because of the dynamic nature, it doesn’t need compilation of code at client side. Javascript jas its own package managers such as NPM. Javascript became the most preferred and popular programming language since facebook launched the React and React native frameworks for web and mobile app development.

Advantages Of JavaScript-

• Javascript is fast, flexible and light-weight
• It can be used for web apps and mobile apps.
• Javascript can be used for both frontend and backend
• Has huge community and great frameworks available online 

Dart Vs JavaScript- A Comparison

1. Popularity-

Dart is a new language. It has got a huge attention among mobile developers as an alternative to React native. Popular companies like Google, Alibaba are using Flutter.

Right now, javascript is everywhere and many companies are using javascript frameworks for developing mobile and web applications. It can be used for server-side applications and backends so most of the developers are learning javascript as a language. 

2. Learning Curve-

Learning Dart can be overwhelming for beginners as there are limited courses available online for Dart programming language. Google has documentation of Dart on its official website that helps programmers to learn Dart concepts easily. 

Knowledge of basic programming concepts helps you to learn the Javascript. As it is an old programming language, there are lots of online courses and tutorials through which developers can learn Javascript. 

3. Frontend Vs Backend-

Now, Dart is actively used with Flutter for developing the frontend of cross-platform mobile applications. It can be used for web development, but there is no mention of Dart being used for backend development.

Previously javascript was used for frontend web development with CSS and HTML. But with the rise of Node.js framework, now Javascript is used for server-side and backend development also.

4. Commercial Use-

Dart was developed and used by Google. Apart from Google there are some big companies like Alibaba that also adopted Flutter and Dart for developing cross-platform mobile apps. 

Javascript is used by big companies for developing both web and cross-platform mobile applications. Lots of popular companies like Reddit, instagram, eBay, Slack, Airbnb are using Javascript.

Know more at- https://solaceinfotech.com/blog/dart-vs-javascript-a-comparison-that-you-must-know/

What Is New In Flutter 1.17 And Dart 2.8?

Flutter is a cross-platform programming framework used for developing Android, iOS apps, and now it’s progressing towards the web. Flutter uses Dart programming language to build android, ios, web apps with a unified UI look across all. The first release for Flutter and dart for the year 2020 is out now.

This new version of Flutter has closed 6339 issues and came with many performance level improvements. During the release of Flutter, the whole world is facing the crisis because of pandemic and most of you are working from home, hence Flutter has named this release as Work-From-Home Edition. 

Let’s see top Flutter 1.17 features with came with this stable release:

• 20-37% rapid Navigation within the default case
• Up to 40% decrease in CPU/GPU usage for animations in iOS
• Application size is reduced up to 18.5%
• 70% of memory reduction scrolling through large images
• The default use of Apple’s Metal graphics API, improving rendering time by around 50 percent on iOS

You can also know- Why Flutter is golden technology for ios app development? Flutter 1.17 has introduced a new widget NavigationRail designed by Material Design Team and has also improved the fabric DatePicker widget. 

Let us see the details of the new features.

Features Of Flutter 1.17-

1. Mobile Performance And Size Improvements-

Flutter 1.17 release is mainly focused on performance and memory improvements. By upgrading the app to the new version, your users can experience faster animations, smaller app size, and low memory use. You can experience 20% to 37% speedup for the default navigation case. There is 40% reduction in CPU/GPU use for ios animations, counting on the hardware. 

This release comes with app size improvement with some fixes that gives an enormous result.  Also, this comes with a 70% reduction in memory usage while scrolling through large images and increases the performance. 

2. Material Widgets-

Flutter 1.17 supports new material widgets and also updates to the existing widgets. With this release, NavigationRail is added, which is a replacement widget that gives a responsive app navigation model. It is excellent for apps that will switch between mobile and desktop form factors. DatePicker and TextSelection overflow widgets have also been updated. DatePicker’s new visuals match the updated Material guidelines and add a new text input mode. Now TextSelection has improved fidelity for iOS and Android when buttons are longer than can be displayed without overflowing. Google also releases a new Animation package that provides prebuilt animations by implementing the new Material motion specifications. In short, new release brings- 

• The new NavigationRail widget
• Updated Material DatePicker widget
• Updated text selection overflow on Android
• Updated text selection overflow on iOS

3. Google Fonts-

Google fonts for the updated version have been released and developers can use any fonts from fonts.google.com to their app. When the app is ready for deployment, developer can decide whether the user will receive the font by downloading it from the API or is pre-bundled with the app package.

4. Metal support-

Metal is Apple’s low-level graphics API which allows access to the GPU of ios devices that allows flutter apps to run faster. The metal support improves rendering speeds of iOS apps by 50%. On the iOS devices that support Metal, Flutter now uses it by default, making your Flutter apps run faster most of the time, increasing rendering speeds by about 50 percent on the average.

5. Material Text Scale-

With the new release, Flutter team has completed the implementation of Scale portion of the 2018 Material Design specification. This release updates the TextTheme API to match the Material spec by maintaining the old names so that the code will not break.

6. Accessibility And Internationalization-

It is important to broadcast Flutter apps towards possible audiences, hence we have to focus on accessibility. This new release adds accessibility fixes for scrolling, text fields, and other input widgets.  On the internationalization front, they have been performing on certain issues influencing Samsung console IMEs that influenced content contribution to different East Asian dialects.

On the internationalization front, they have been performing on certain issues influencing Samsung console IMEs that influenced text input to different East Asian languages.

7. Tooling-

If you are using the pre-release version of Dart DevTools implemented with Flutter, you can easily analyze all types of improvements but the most important is the Network tab.

Also, to updated Dart DevTools, this release includes support for the “fast start” option that allows you to start your Flutter app debugging. This feature installs a generic Android app that only depends on the plugin code.

Features of Dart 2.8-

• Dart 2.8 will run a few edge cases and library changes, keeping intact the rest of the code.
• The improved Pubget in Dart 2.8 will be less time-consuming to fetch all the packages and the versions.
• This new version has brought in another feature- the introduction of “ out-of-date” dependencies. It helps to identify any outdated version by writing only the pub outdated command.
• A new tab has been added in Dart 2.8 networking tool. It helps to check all the network requests and it can either be done manually or by using a tab.
• Dev plugins channel has also been introduced for the developers.

Wrap up-

These are some amazing features in Flutter 1.17 and Dart 2.8. One can develop a great flutter app with these new features. Are you looking to develop a flutter app for your business with new features? Then we are here to help you. You can consult with solace experts or hire flutter developers of the solace team to build an amazing application. Connect with Solace and get a free quote for flutter app development that will help your business to lead in the market.