Sky: An Experiment Writing Dart for Mobile (Dart Developer Summit 2015)

Seems everyone here is panicking because they think that this means Chrome OS will be killed and Android will be made to run on Chromebooks - but I actually think the signs point to the opposite - Chrome OS becoming the Phone/Tablet OS under a new guise. I wouldn't read too much into a leak filtered through journalists, and instead look at what Google's actually working on: - Google has Chromium developers working on a DART-based Mobile UI framework and execution engine, Flutter ( [link] ). It's looking to be far better than the existing Android UI system - built for touch and 120fps from the start. This uses the Dartium VM and a bridge to allow the DART apps to use all the native features of the platform, it's much more than just another web framework. Development on this is very active right now, clearly a sizable team working fulltime - and they're building new developer tools also. There was a talk on this a while ago: [this video] . - Google has built a Runtime to allow existing Android Java-based apps to run on Chrome OS, and is currently testing this and working with developers to get their apps to run on it. It doesn't make much sense to invest in building that out just for chromebooks, since the experience on a Chromebook with Android apps is pretty awful (can't resize etc), but it makes total sense if it's going to be how legacy Java/Android apps run on the new Chrome based phone OS. The sad truth is that Android simply isn't a very well engineered system - it's been imp

Notice that they never say Android is here to stay - Maybe Chrome OS will become the Phone/Tablet OS under a new guise? Google's working on a new UI layer and potential backwards compatibility for older Android apps, which points in that direction: - Chromium developers are working on a DART-based Mobile UI framework and execution engine, Flutter ( [link] ). It's looking to be far better than the existing Android UI system - built for touch and 120fps from the start. This uses the Dartium VM and a bridge to allow the DART apps to use all the native features of the platform, it's much more than just another web framework. Development on this is very active right now, clearly a sizable team working fulltime - and they're building new developer tools also. There was a talk on this a while ago: [this video] . - Google has built a Runtime to allow existing Android Java-based apps to run on Chrome OS, and is currently testing this and working with developers to get their apps to run on it. It doesn't make much sense to invest in building that out just for chromebooks, since the experience on a Chromebook with Android apps is pretty awful (can't resize etc), but it makes total sense if it's going to be how legacy Java/Android apps run on the new Chrome based phone OS. The sad truth is that Android simply isn't a very well engineered system - it's been improved over time, but problems persist - like the complex update process leading to unsatisfied users and security problems, poor UI per

> I don't understand why Flutter's creators are so seemingly religious about Dart I think Dart's history might be relevant here. Flutter was unveiled at a 2015 Dart programmer conference ( [this video] ) and it was originally called Sky. Dart doesn't exist because of Flutter, it's the other way around. Dart was originally intended to be a replacement for Javascript back in 2011, but it utterly failed to gain any adoption because about a year later in 2012, Typescript came out. Typescript being a superset of JavaScript I think completely destroyed any chance Dart could catch on for its original web development goals, since you didn't have to dump JS entirely, just rename .js to .ts and gradually start type-hinting code. Even within Google, they abandoned Dart for Angular and went all in with Typescript. In a way it's refreshing to see Google re-tool an existing language, rather than invent a whole new langauge for cross platform app development, seeing how often as a company, they kill off projects quickly and start whole new ones.