Introduction to Dart for Java Developers-Part1

Published in

ISOP Nepal

3 min readAug 15, 2019

This tutorial gives a core overview of the programming language Dart

Dart is an open-source general-purpose programming language. It is originally developed by Google and later approved as a standard by ECMA. Dart is a new programming language meant for the server as well as the browser. Introduced by Google, the Dart SDK ships with its compiler — the Dart VM. The SDK also includes a utility -dart2js, a transpiler that generates JavaScript equivalent of a Dart Script. This tutorial provides a basic level understanding of the Dart programming language.

Audience

This tutorial will be quite helpful for all those developers who want to develop single-page web applications, a mobile app (for Flutter) a using Dart. It is meant for programmers with a stronghold on object-oriented concepts.

Prerequisites

The tutorial assumes that readers have adequate exposure to object-oriented programming concepts. If you have worked on Java, then it will help you further to grasp the concepts of Dart quickly. Don’t worry if you don’t have any programming knowledge experience still you can grasp the concepts of Dart quickly.

What you’ll learn

Installation
How to create constructors
Different ways to specify parameters
When and how to create getters and setters
How Dart handles privacy
How to create factories
How functional programming works in Dart
Other core Dart concepts

Executing Script Online with DartPad

You may test your scripts online by using the online editor at https://dartpad.dartlang.org/. The Dart Editor executes the script and displays both HTML as well as console output. The online editor is shipped with a set of preset code samples.

A screenshot of the Dartpad editor is given below −

Dartpad also enables to code in a more restrictive fashion. This can be achieved by checking the Strong mode option on the bottom right of the editor. You may try the following example using Dartpad

void main() { 
   print('hello world'); 
}

The code will display the following output

hello world

Setting Up the Local Environment

In this section, let us see how to set up the local environment.

Using the Text Editor

Examples of a few editors include Windows Notepad, Notepad++, Emacs, vim or vi, etc. Editors may vary from one Operating System to another. The source files are typically named with the extension “.dart”.

Installing the Dart SDK

The current stable version of Dart is 2.4.0. The dart SDK can be downloaded from −

A screenshot of the Dart SDK installation is given below −

On completion of the SDK installation, set the PATH environment variable to

<dart-sdk-path>\bin

Verifying the Installation

To verify if Dart has been successfully installed, open the command prompt and enter the following command −

Dart

If the installation is successful, it will show the dart runtime.

IDE Support

Examples include Eclipse, IntelliJ, and WebStormfrom Jet brains. Given below are the steps for configuring the Dart environment using WebStrom IDE.

Installing WebStorm

The installation file for WebStorm can be downloaded from https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/download/#section=windows-version.

The WebStorm installation file is available for Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. After downloading the installation files, follow the steps given below −

Install the Dart SDK: Refer to the steps listed above
Create a new Dart project and configure Dart support
To create a new Dart project,
Click Create New Project from the Welcome Screen
In the next dialog box, click Dart
If there is no value specified for the Dart SDK path, then provide the SDK path. For example, the SDK path may be <dart installation directory>/dart/dartsdk.

Add a Dart File to the Project

To add a Dart file to the Project −

Right-click on the Project
New → Dart File
Enter the name of the Dart file

A screenshot of the WebStorm Editor is given below −