Skip to main content

Flutter Hello World

Flutter is an open-source UI software development kit created by Google. It allows developers to build beautiful and high-performance applications for mobile, web, and desktop platforms using a single codebase.

History of Flutter​

Flutter was first announced by Google in May 2017 and was initially released as a beta version. It gained popularity among developers due to its fast development cycles, hot-reload feature, and expressive UI capabilities. Flutter 1.0, the stable version, was released in December 2018.

Features of Flutter​

  1. Fast Development: Flutter provides a hot-reload feature that allows developers to see the changes they make in real-time without restarting the app. This significantly speeds up the development process.

  2. Expressive UI: Flutter offers a rich set of customizable UI widgets, allowing developers to create stunning and responsive user interfaces. With Flutter, you can easily create beautiful animations, transitions, and complex UI layouts.

  3. Single Codebase: Flutter uses the Dart programming language and allows you to write a single codebase for multiple platforms. This means that you can develop applications for iOS, Android, web, and desktop using the same codebase, which reduces development time and effort.

  4. Native Performance: Flutter apps are compiled to native code, which ensures excellent performance on each platform. The Flutter framework also provides access to platform-specific APIs, ensuring native-like user experiences.

  5. Vibrant Community: Flutter has a large and active community of developers. There are numerous packages and libraries available that can help you extend the functionality of your app and solve common development challenges.

Hello World Example​

Now let's get started with a Hello World example in Flutter. Follow the steps below:

Step 1: Install Flutter​

To get started with Flutter, you need to install it on your development machine. Visit the official Flutter website at flutter.dev and follow the installation instructions for your operating system.

Step 2: Set up an IDE​

Flutter supports various IDEs, including Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, and Visual Studio Code. Choose your preferred IDE and install the Flutter and Dart plugins. This will provide you with tools and features specific to Flutter development.

Step 3: Create a New Flutter Project​

Open your IDE and create a new Flutter project. You can do this using the IDE's built-in project creation wizard or by running the following command in the terminal:

flutter create hello_world

This will create a new Flutter project named "hello_world" in your current directory.

Step 4: Open the Project​

Once the project is created, open it in your IDE. You will see the project structure, including the main.dart file, which is the entry point for your Flutter app.

Step 5: Edit the main.dart File​

In the main.dart file, replace the existing code with the following code:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(MaterialApp(
    home: Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text('Hello World'),
      ),
      body: Center(
        child: Text('Hello, Flutter!'),
      ),
    ),
  ));
}

This code imports the required Flutter libraries, defines the main function, and creates a simple Flutter app with a material design AppBar and a centered Text widget displaying "Hello, Flutter!".

Step 6: Run the App​

To run the app, connect a device (physical or emulator) to your development machine and click the "Run" button in your IDE. Alternatively, you can run the following command in the terminal:

flutter run

This will launch the app on your connected device, and you should see the Hello World screen with the title "Hello World" and the text "Hello, Flutter!".

Congratulations! You have successfully created a Hello World app using Flutter.

Comparison with Alternatives​

Flutter offers several advantages over its alternatives, such as React Native and Xamarin:

  • Performance: Flutter apps are compiled to native code, providing excellent performance across platforms. React Native uses a bridge to communicate with native components, which can introduce performance overhead. Xamarin apps use a combination of native and managed code, which can also impact performance.

  • Development Speed: Flutter's hot-reload feature allows for faster development cycles compared to React Native and Xamarin. With hot-reload, you can see the changes you make to the app in real-time without restarting the app.

  • UI Flexibility: Flutter provides a rich set of customizable UI widgets, allowing for more expressive and flexible UI designs compared to React Native and Xamarin. Flutter's widgets are highly customizable and can adapt to different screen sizes and orientations.

  • Community and Ecosystem: Flutter has a vibrant and growing community of developers, with a large number of packages and libraries available. This ensures good community support and helps developers solve common challenges. React Native has a larger community, but Flutter's community is rapidly expanding.

In conclusion, Flutter is a powerful and versatile framework for building cross-platform applications. Its fast development cycles, expressive UI capabilities, and native performance make it an excellent choice for developers.