Around the fourth quarter of 2019, my boss informs me about his plans to develop an e-commerce application for the clients of one of his companies. He asks me about what web application technologies I know of that can satisfy the requirements of the application, and after personal research, I presented my list of available options to him; subtly marketing React Native to him. This was because according to my findings, there were more developers in the community using it than the other options. It had to be the best, right? Popularity-driven development!.
One other reason I hadn't been sold the Flutter 'wave' was because I had to learn Dart (yet another language! π). I had learnt Java for developing android applications some years earlier and TypeScript when we had to develop Angular applications. Not another language again please! Please!
He summons me up some days later to tell me about Flutter and asks me about what I knew about it. I remind him that I had briefed him about it earlier, and how it does about the same thing as React Native (still marketing React Native to him, subtly). My boss tells me he thinks that Flutter is great for the next set of applications that he wants us to build (π why won't an ardent fan of Google technologies think so? π)
My boss, being the awesome marketer that he habitually is, doesn't give me an opportunity to object at all. He quickly shows me sample applications built using Flutter. That was the first thing that got me hooked!
He makes me learn it with him, watching videos from the amazing Angela Yu of London App Brewery, who taught it in an energetic fashion. Second hook!
One framework for Web, Android, iOS and in anxious expectation, Fuschia. What's not to be hooked about? Hook three!
At this point, I had lost my skepticism over Flutter. I had become hooked! I was in, and it was as if the veil of bias over my perspective was lifted.
The last thing that got me hooked was the Dart programming language. Understanding it was easy because of my previous experience with Java and JavaScript. Dart seemed like a middle ground between both languages to me; without the perks of JavaScript and the relative complexities of Java. My boss kept affectionately calling Dart the best of both worlds.
Although I was pretty disappointed when I found out that Flutter for the web platform was still undergoing technical review and could not be used in production at the time, I was delighted that when it eventually becomes stable, I'll be one of the first to test it out. Hmm. The countless things a bias perspective can make you accept! π
I checked the Flutter community on Twitter, and was impressed with the timely updates and support I saw. Don't ask me! I've already added the π emoji to my name on Twitter and have started following @FlutterDev, @MartinAguinis, @filiphracek, @remi_rousselet and Simon Lightfoot.
I hope to learn, make the best use of, have fun with and contribute to this awesome framework - Flutter - in the coming days.
Top comments (3)
Flutter is great, and I'm an ardent supporter too but it isn't suited for e-commerce applications IMO.
Flutter Web apps, we even made a POC, are rendered Client Side and not Server Side. You can read more here
It's going to be a big pain with SEO. Use Flutter for Web Apps wherein SEO isn't paramount
Wow! I didn't know this.
Thanks a lot!
We actually plan to use Flutter for Android and iOS apps alone.. and Fuschia when it comes out too.
Starred the POC on GitHub!
Orim, thank you for the support :)
I hope you make great apps!