As part of my 100 days of coding challenge, I've been diving into Dart, a client-optimized language for developing fast apps on any platform. In this article, I'll summarize what I've learnt about Dart in the first week of the challenge, its features.

What is Dart?

Dart is a programming language designed for building mobile, desktop, server, and web applications. It's known for its:

1. Type Safety: Dart uses static type checking to ensure that a variable’s value always matches its static type. Types are mandatory, but type annotations are optional.

2. Null Safety: Dart has built-in sound null safety, meaning values can’t be null unless explicitly stated.

3. Flexible Execution Runtime: Dart is paired with a flexible execution runtime platform, making it the foundation for Flutter.

Key Features of Dart

Type Safety

Dart ensures type safety through static type checking. This means that you don't always have to explicitly state the type of a variable, Dart can infer it based on usage.

var name = 'Andrew'; // Dart infers that 'name' is of type String

Null Safety

Dart's sound null safety prevents null dereference errors by ensuring that non-nullable variables cannot hold null values.

String? nullableName; // Nullable type
String nonNullableName = 'Alice'; // Non-nullable type

The Platform

Native Platform

For mobile and desktop applications, Dart uses both a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler during development and an Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compiler for deployment. JIT allows for features like hot reload, which speeds up the development process.

void main() {
  print('Hello, Dart!');
}

When ready for deployment, the AOT compiler compiles Dart to native ARM or x64 machine code, ensuring fast startup times and efficient memory management.

Web Platform

Dart can also be compiled to JavaScript or WebAssembly, making it versatile for web development. It supports:

• Incremental JavaScript Compiler: For a fast developer cycle.

• Optimized JavaScript Compiler: For compact and efficient JavaScript code.

• WebAssembly Compiler: For high-performance applications.

Memory Management and Isolates

Dart's runtime handles memory management using a generational garbage collector, ensuring efficient memory usage. It also manages isolates—independent memory heaps used to run Dart code concurrently.

Using Final and Const

If you want to create immutable variables, use final or const.

final String name = 'Andrew';
const int age = 30;

final is for variables that are set once and can change at runtime, while const is for compile-time constants

Late Variables

The late keyword is used for non-nullable variables that are initialized after their declaration or for lazy initialization.

I am excited to dive deep into Dart in the coming week . For more information you can use the dart documentation which I am highly utilizing. Stay tuned for my insights and experiences as I explore this powerful language.