Introduction to Flutter

Introduction to Flutter Overview#

Flutter is Google’s open-source UI toolkit for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It uses the Dart programming language and provides a rich set of customizable widgets for creating beautiful, fast applications with productive developer workflows.

Key Concepts#

1. What is Flutter?#

  • Cross-platform development framework
  • Uses Dart programming language
  • Widget-based UI architecture
  • Skia rendering engine

2. Why Use Flutter?#

  • Single codebase for multiple platforms
  • High performance (native compilation)
  • Hot reload for rapid development
  • Rich widget library

3. Installing Flutter SDK#

  • Platform-specific installation
  • Flutter doctor diagnostics
  • Channel management (stable/beta/dev)

4. Setting Up Development Environment#

  • IDE setup (VS Code/Android Studio)
  • Emulator configuration
  • Device debugging setup

5. Creating a New Flutter Project#

  • Using flutter create
  • Project templates
  • Package naming conventions

6. Understanding Flutter Project Structure#

  • lib/ directory organization
  • Pubspec.yaml configuration
  • Platform-specific folders

7. Running Your First Flutter App#

  • Default counter app
  • Platform simulator/emulator
  • Physical device testing

8. Hot Reload vs Hot Restart#

  • State preservation comparison
  • Use cases for each
  • Performance characteristics