If you are interested in mobile apps and their development, you may have heard the term Flutter, but wonder what all the buzz is about! Basically speaking, Flutter is an open-source technology developed by Google that gives app developers easy-to-use tools for creating mobile, desktop, and web apps while using a single codebase. The thing that really sets it apart from other such solutions on the market is that it’s much more than just a framework or library- Flutter is a complete software development kit, or SDK that provides developers with far greater flexibility when developing front end and back end applications while using a wide range of programming languages like C/C++, Dart, and Java.
But wait, there’s more! Flutter also provides the developer with a custom widget-based UI library and a grab bag of reusable UI elements like custom text inputs, sliders, and buttons, that can be deployed to fit your unique app needs. This amazing package gives the Flutter developer everything necessary for building top-notch cross-platform apps in one user-friendly package, doing away with the need to piece together a bunch of disparate components cherry-picked from other sources! To make things even more exciting and easier to use, Flutter’s latest upgrades have added a plethora of new cutting-edge features and big improvements to the platform, making it the most powerful tool of its kind ever seen!
The highly intuitive Dart programming language, another remarkable brainchild of the Google engineers, lies at the heart of Flutter’s amazing success. Dart is a typed object-oriented programming language that shares a syntax similar to JavaScript, and is designed expressly for the purpose of front-end development. Dart provides the app developer with many helpful features such as strong typing, garbage collection, which is a memory recovery feature built into some programming languages, along with asynchronous programming, making it a highly efficient language for use in building high-performance desktop, web, and mobile applications.
The architecture of Flutter is made up of three layers that work together to power the framework:
The Framework Layer – This layer is built using the innovative Dart programming language. It is Flutter’s most visible feature and is used to provide app developers with a comprehensive set of libraries they can draw from to develop while putting together their app’s user interface. The Framework Layer is subdivided into widgets, rendering layers, and foundational classes.
The Engine Layer – This layer is written using the popular and effective C/C++ programming language. The Engine Layer provides a low-level implementation of Flutter’s framework, and includes core APIs like accessibility support, graphics, plug-in architecture, carburettor, and text layout. It is in communication with the framework layer in order to execute the code that renders the user interface.
The Embedder Layer – This layer is platform-specific and its purpose is to launch the Flutter engine while providing it with the resources necessary to render the user interface. The Embedded Layer allows Flutter apps the option to run on different operating systems while providing a platform-specific interface that the engine layer can use to interact with native platform APIs.
Flutter offers fantastic benefits for the app developer, including speedy development, cost savings, and a wealth of useful features!