[HN Gopher] Dart 3.4: WASM and Macros preview
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       Dart 3.4: WASM and Macros preview
        
       Author : markdog12
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2024-05-14 21:00 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (medium.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (medium.com)
        
       | troupo wrote:
       | It's somewhat weird to see Dart still chugging along. A language
       | that cannot figure out what it's for.
       | 
       | Was it a better Javascript? Oh, old history
       | 
       | Was it just a failed project that Google Analytics team used? Oh,
       | old history
       | 
       | It's for Flutter and app development? Not anymore
       | 
       | It's native cross-platform compiled language for apps and backend
       | with a hodgepodge of features haphazardly thrown in? Yes, for
       | now.
        
         | TobTobXX wrote:
         | > It's for Flutter and app development? Not anymore
         | 
         | What do you mean?? Did you read the article, because it is
         | clearly about Dart and Flutter.
        
           | thayne wrote:
           | I assume it is a reference to Google laying off all their
           | dart and flutter engineers [1]. So I'm not sure who is still
           | maintaining either project.
           | 
           | [1]: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/01/google-lays-off-staff-
           | from...
        
             | isoos wrote:
             | Clearly not all, that would be a different announcement.
        
         | hgyjnbdet wrote:
         | I quite like the language and hope it continues to chug along.
         | As a beginner who wanted to create a cross platform app it was
         | a no brainer for me over the ever increasing amount of web
         | frameworks, or writing the same app in multiple native
         | languages.
         | 
         | Might be my ignorance as a beginner but I don't see a
         | hodgepodge of haphazard features, but the beginning of a true
         | cross platform language.
        
         | isoos wrote:
         | Why do you think it must be one thing or the other? It can be
         | better than Javascript, used for Flutter and app development,
         | and also cross-platform compiled and used for backend.
        
         | jimbob45 wrote:
         | Dart beat TypeScript to existence by a solid year. The web
         | should run on Dart right now but Google fumbled the ball.
         | 
         | Web search was synonymous with Google until they enshittified
         | their product to irrelevancy a few years back. Where once using
         | Bing was unthinkable, several of my coworkers now happily use
         | it.
         | 
         | They then proceeded to fumble the incredible lead they had with
         | AI just a few years ago. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised
         | if they let their Chrome monopoly slip through their fingers as
         | well.
         | 
         | It's ridiculous how Google's BoD hasn't axed everyone in a
         | leadership role at that company given how many gems they've let
         | slip through their fingers.
        
         | markdog12 wrote:
         | Was it a better Javascript? Yes.
         | 
         | Was it just a failed project that Google Analytics team used?
         | No.
         | 
         | It's for Flutter and app development? It's a general-purpose
         | programming language.
         | 
         | It's native cross-platform compiled language for apps and
         | backend? It's a general-purpose programming language with
         | multiple compilation targets, including native.
         | 
         | hodgepodge of features haphazardly thrown in? Certainly not.
        
       | blopker wrote:
       | While this release is more about bug fixes, with no stable
       | features, I'm so excited for macros. Dart is an amazing language,
       | but the json story is way too weak for a modern ecosystem.
       | 
       | Dart is my favorite language right now. The tooling is incredible
       | because they learned from Go's success. Because it compiles to
       | native, it's great for CLI programs. It can also ship as a single
       | binary for servers.
       | 
       | It's good at so many things, but it's not the best at any one
       | thing. I think that's why it hasn't gotten the same usage as
       | other languages.
        
       | josephg wrote:
       | I'm excited to see wasmgc in the browser - which should let a lot
       | more languages compile to small, fast webassembly bundles.
       | 
       | What's the state of wasmgc? Is it supported by the major browsers
       | yet? How big are dart apps compiled to wasm?
        
         | markdog12 wrote:
         | > What's the state of wasmgc? Is it supported by the major
         | browsers yet?
         | 
         | https://docs.flutter.dev/platform-integration/web/wasm#backg...
         | 
         | > Chromium and V8 released stable support for WasmGC in
         | Chromium 119. Note that Chrome on iOS uses WebKit, which
         | doesn't yet support WasmGC. Firefox announced stable support
         | for WasmGC in Firefox 120, but currently doesn't work due to a
         | known limitation.
         | 
         | You can also check here: https://webassembly.org/features/
         | 
         | > How big are dart apps compiled to wasm?
         | 
         | I just did `dart compile wasm main.dart -O4` with an empty dart
         | file and got a 68k wasm file. That gzip's to 24K.
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-14 23:02 UTC)