The Most Powerful Underrated Programming Language I See No One Using

Head to head comparison with its immediate competitors

It's been sitting around with no one noticing. It’s better, stronger, and snappier. Yet, most programmers keep ignoring it.

Is it because it’s considerably new and developers are skeptical? I don’t think so. The problem is that most developers aren’t aware of its superpowers.

Technically, it’s better than what most developers are using. The obstacle is that most developers are stuck to their old ways. They are unwilling to explore what more the world has to offer. The silent kid is Dart, potentially the JavaScript Killer. Let us look at how it compares to its competitors.

Answering Critical Questions, the Why

Dart was purposely developed to be better than JavaScript. The latter had pitfalls that Google didn’t like.

So Google decided to build something better. A language that would offer way more than Javascript.

At the heart of Javascript was React maintained by Facebook. Google knew they could create something better. So they created Flutter. A direct competitor to both React and JavaScript.

To win this war, they knew they had to make Dart and Flutter a lot better, not just better. They did exactly that.

Forget Your Tech Stacks

Forget MEAN, MERN, MEVN, and the other tech stacks you’ve been using. Dart is a lot better and I will prove it in a few.

The magic with flutter is the ability to create cross-platform applications from a single code base. May it be android, IOS, web, or desktop applications.

Separate codebases can be a headache for developers. Flutter solves this snag with one codebase. Example: If you have an android application that is in Flutter, you can reuse the code if you need other versions like web or IOS without compromising on performance.

Brand consistency is very important. Unlike React Native which gives you a gateway to native components, Flutter uses its rich resources to enhance consistency across applications.

This same reason is responsible for making Electron the #1 in designing desktop applications. More companies are preferring Electron over their native counterparts. Currently, most of the desktop apps that we use are built on Electron. This same future is on hold for Dart.

As of 2022, Flutter has grown massively. Its progress is insanely accelerating. I can now confidently say that Flutter Desktop is even better than Electron. Let us look at how Flutter compares to its other competitors.

Web development (Flutter Web vs Reacts Next)

Next is Reacts framework for production. Flutter web is production-ready out of the box. So how do the two compare? And which is better? Below are some of the advantages of Flutter.

• Flutter is capable of handling big data sets.
• Cupertino design UI elements and material support are excellent.
• Pub dev hosts a large number of open source and commercial libraries.
• Transitions, animations, and other graphical effects can be rendered with ease.
• Animations can be rendered at up to 60 frames per second.
• Ability to create a gaming engine with advanced animations and physics for particular products.
• Ability to incorporate as embedded pieces with an existing web app.
• Support for PWA.

React is more mature than Flutter. Regardless, flutter offers way much more considering you can reuse the code. And when you do the code will offer a near-native experience.

Teams can be more productive with flutter. Code development time is significantly lower. This can help you ship your MVP significantly fast.

Flutter Web has the ability to execute JS code. If you need to use a JS library or SDK, this is a great solution. You can add your react code to a flutter project. It takes nothing from you. Flutter can be used as an umbrella for React.

Google’s EAT is already a huge part of SEO. Mentions without backlinks are now more powerful than ever thanks to AI. Flutter’s SEO isn’t that bad with current technologies.

App development (Flutter vs React Native)

React Native borrows a lot from React, most arguments still stand. Regardless, there are still issues to point out.

React Native is bad. Last time I checked several libraries were outdated. Was Meta giving up on React Native?

I didn’t even mention hot reload in React Native. And if Meta doesn’t like you, they take it away from you. Looking at Architecture, performance, and other factors, Flutter is a clear winner.

Desktop applications (Flutter vs Electron)

Electron apps are written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript just like regular websites. With Electron, you can easily turn your web application written in these languages into a desktop application. Simply, Electron is a browser in a box.

Therefore, it comes with a framework to read-and-parse HTML and interprets JavaScript. Each Electron app has this framework. Javascript is compiled Just-In-Time (JIT). For this reason, performance gets affected and applications are a bit slower.

On the other hand, Flutter compiles into native code or machine code. No time is spent interpreting Javascript, so the operation is Ahead-Of-Time (AOT).

This makes flutter applications better in performance, feel snappier, and occupy less space since there isn’t an interpreter framework.

Dart Backend Frameworks (The Resurrection)

As a developer, one of the fears is the friction of using two languages to create an application. One for the front end and the other for the backend. It makes things more difficult.

This isn’t a problem with Dart. Backend frameworks exist. They’ve had their fair share of contribution challenges which is okay.

Regardless, tenacious dart contributors are still pushing for the backend. The most promising of them all is Serverpod. It’s open-source and progress is satisfactory.

Their landing page reads the missing server for flutter. The good news is that it’s already been used for production in multiple projects.

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