13 May 2014

Dart Programming

Apart from having clearer code base and more structure, Dart has very little traction so far compared to lush green pastures of Javascript. Especially, when it comes to community driven libraries and support, there is hardly a comparison that can be matched on the front-end. JavaScript is even pacing itself on the server-side as well. There is also a major compatibility hurdle for Dart where almost everything will require a need to port to support the language. Already, many industry vendors have rejected the notion of supporting Dart on their platforms and even browser support is still fairly limited. A few clear drawbacks emerge from using Dart especially when: it is not supported by Chrome, lacks vendor support, even dart2js is fairly limited in support and developer community is also fragmented. Google has also built Angularjs. Although, a port for Dart also exists, it seems to make very little sense to build a framework based on HTML5 and JavaScript if the intended view was to replace it with Dart.  In terms of the richness of libraries available, Javascript is also a cooler language and more versatile. One can agree that JavaScript is not a perfect language. But, every language has its quirks which does not mean it is flawed. Since, there is little support for Dart in the browser it will have a very slow traction in the community in similar respects to how Java struggled to meet community demand and had to bestow itself as primarily a server-side language. Although, there is very little in comparison to Dart and Java especially as one is more of a web programming language and the other is a very well established platform. Even the confusing domain use of Dart as a replacement to JavaScript can be seen as side stepping the mark. The slow pace with which Dart community is moving may imply that it is only in time when the project will reach a standstill and perhaps may even be shelved as another experiment of the past.