Flutter Dart- A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started with Flutter

Flutter has been catching developers’ attention nowadays. That is because it is a framework that can be used to develop natively compiled apps for mobile, web, and desktop with one codebase. Google’s tool has the hot reload feature, widget sets, and native-level performance in its arsenal. Flutter uses Dart as its programming language, which promises faster app performance on every platform.

Mastering the core concepts and basic functionalities of Flutter will give beginners a solid foundation to kickstart their coding journey. This guide gives you an inside look at Flutter’s architecture along with step-by-step instructions so you can create your first app. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have enough knowledge to work your way up to becoming a pro.

Installing Flutter

To start things off, we need to download the Flutter software development kit (SDK). You can find it on the official website after selecting your operating system. It is compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS so whichever device you have should do just fine! Extract the downloaded file into a folder location you want.

Next up is updating our computer or laptop’s PATH environment variable. This is so we can run Flutter commands in our terminal or command prompt whenever we need them. To check if everything was installed correctly after doing this step, open cmd or terminal and typeflutter doctor. This command checks for any errors in your configuration.

This is what a healthy flutter doctoroutput looks like:

If there are no issues found at this point then let’s move on!

Install Android Studio if you haven’t already and set it up properly. Also make sure Xcode is installed if you’re running macOS because some features won’t work without it even though other IDEs are available.

Finally, install both Flutter and Dart plugins for your preferred IDE. For example, Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, and Android Studio all have these plugins available for installation in their marketplace or preferences settings.

Understanding the Framework Architecture

Finding that perfect balance between rapid development and high-performance is all about how you structure your code. Each layer of Flutter’s architecture builds on each other to achieve this. The framework is built atop Dart’s platform that provides the language and runtimes. With its ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation technology, even a few lines of minimal code will run smoothly on any platform.

You have Dart as the core feature for widgets, animations, gestures, and rendering. This widget-centric layout is what allows for even the smallest text or image on your app to be highly customizable and reusable. Scaling up with this UI development flow will be a breeze.

The Engine core APIs are written in C++ to provide low-level implementations of Flutter’s core features such as graphics (via Skia), text layouts, file I/O, and networking I/O. This layer is where Flutter really shines in terms of performance; it has 60fps across devices, or if you’re using a device that supports 120Hz refresh rates, then 120fps animation is consistent!

Creating Your First Flutter App

Taking your first steps into Flutter is an exciting time, and we can’t wait for you to see how powerful this framework can be. Fire up your terminal or command prompt and navigate to the directory where you want your project folder to live. Use flutter create my_first_app to make a new Flutter project with a simple demo app.

Once you’re inside that folder (cd my_first_app), use flutter run. Make sure you have either a physical device connected or a virtual one installed. This command will build and run your app, and when it pops up on your screen, it should look like this:

We’re gonna start with a default counter app so that I can show you how state management works in Flutter.

But first, I’ll show you around lib/main.dart file. Open that file in whatever IDE you like best because the Dart code for your app’s main screen lives there. Play around with the floatingActionButton widget by changing its icon or the action it performs when pressed. Add different widgets and properties so you can start getting familiar with how Flutter apps are built as fast as possible. When you make changes, use hot reload to instantly update the UI without needing to fully restart your app.

When it comes time to jazz things up, Flutter’s high performance makes it easy to create visually impressive applications. This is despite only using one codebase across multiple platforms. With its layered architecture building on itself over time, Flutter supports fast development cycles. It also maintains peak performance across devices too.

Just remember: Learning Flutter is not a sprint! Memorize all these widgets until they become second nature (or just learn how to Google them really well) then dive into state management as soon as possible so you can start putting together something bigger/more fun than a counter app!

The possibilities are endless thanks to documentation and community forums full of examples that prove what’s possible with enough creativity (and patience).

Happy coding!