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