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Shariq Ahmed
Shariq Ahmed

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What is Dart Programming Language and Why Should You Learn it?

Dart Programming Language

JavaScript has lots of pros. But it also has cons. Massive code bases and difficult scaling, to name a few. To address these issues, Google decided to create the Dart programming language in 2011. Dart is open-source, an object-oriented language that makes web programming scalable and structured.

One amazing feature of Dart is that it combines some great features of other programming languages as well. Its syntax is also one of the cleanest and easiest to read.

Further, in Dart, you can work on both the client and server side. This means you can create amazing web, mobile, and desktop apps by working on Dart's client side. It also has a garbage collector that manages memory.

Moreover, when Dart was released in 2011. It didn't gain much traction. But then Flutter was released in 2018 and that's when Dart's popularity also rose. That's because Flutter uses Dart programming language. But why did Flutter choose Dart? 

Well, that's because Dart's layout is declarative and programmatic. This means developers can read and visualize Dart easily. There's no need for a declarative layout like XML. Further, it also has a Just-in-time (JIT) and Ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation. JIT compilers help in fast iterations and hot reloading. Consequently, highly optimized and standalone executables are created.

They also provide ahead-of-time compilations. This means it compiles code in a format that native machines can read. This way, faster UI rendering in browsers is also enabled. Dart also highlights errors in the code without even running it.

But then the question is: What should you learn first? Dart or Flutter? Well, as per the Flutter community, Dart is easy.. That's why you should learn Flutter first and then Dart. 

Now, apart from all the above features of Dart. What I personally like about Dart is it supports asynchronous programming. This means I as a developer can pen down codes that also perform tasks without even preventing code from execution. And this is really helpful when it comes to network requests, file operations, etc. 

Further, due to Dart's built-in libraries, development processes can also be quickened! I don't have to write on multiple operating systems. Just write once and deploy on whatever operating system I like! 

Now, I'm sure till now you might have understood the importance of Dart. But, still, let me be explicit one more time. Even in 2024, Dart is still worth learning! First, because Flutter uses Dart programming language. And as long as Flutter is popular, Dart language will also be popular.

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