Why Google Dart Will Miss Its Target

Key Observations

• Google's Dart programming language faces an uphill battle due to its late market entry and JavaScript's dominant presence. Dart doesn't offer a revolutionary advantage, merely an alternative.
• Dart's compilation to JavaScript is inefficient, resulting in less performant code compared to well-written native JavaScript. This raises the question of Dart's practical utility.
• JavaScript's ubiquitous nature in web development, extending to mobile and even Windows 8 applications, presents a formidable obstacle for Dart's adoption.

Dart, Google's language for structured web applications, runs on both server and client sides (including browsers). While Google's stance on Dart replacing JavaScript remains ambiguous, Chrome's support for both suggests a preference for their own solution. Initial skepticism about Dart's prospects has solidified into a belief that it's unlikely to succeed, mirroring VBScript's failure.

Dart's Design Goals – A Critical Look

Dart's open-source nature boasts several design goals:

1. Structured and Flexible Web Programming: While laudable, the existing abundance of structured and flexible languages already caters to this need. Dart offers yet another option without a clear differentiating factor.
2. Programmer Familiarity: Dart's syntactic similarity to Java, C , and C# is presented as an advantage. However, why not directly utilize one of these established languages to simplify learning?
3. Cross-Device Compatibility: Google acknowledges the fragmented mobile landscape. However, introducing another language might exacerbate fragmentation. While a native Dart runtime for Android and potentially Windows phones is possible, Apple's platform remains unlikely to adopt it.
4. High-Performance Across Browsers: The likelihood of other browser vendors (Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, Opera) integrating native Dart support is low. Google could create plugins, but a chicken-and-egg scenario arises: developers need a wide plugin base before developing Dart applications, and users won't install the plugin without compelling applications.

JavaScript Compilation Inefficiency

Google's Dart-to-JavaScript compiler, while convenient, generates excessively large JavaScript code. A simple "Hello World" program balloons from nine lines of Dart to over 17,000 lines of JavaScript. While optimization is possible, native JavaScript written by a competent developer will consistently outperform compiled Dart code. This further diminishes Dart's appeal.

The Undeniable Dominance of JavaScript

Google's targeting of developers who dislike JavaScript is evident. Despite its widespread use, JavaScript is often misunderstood, partly due to its name and partly due to misconceptions from programmers familiar with class-based languages. However, JavaScript's flexibility and prototypal inheritance, once understood, offer significant advantages. While not perfect, class-based languages can feel cumbersome in comparison.

The core issue for Dart is JavaScript's pervasive presence across all major platforms. Even if Chrome achieved 50% market share, the limited reach of Dart would hinder its adoption. A decade earlier, or if JavaScript were significantly inferior, or if Dart were revolutionary, the situation might have been different.

Conclusion

While Google's innovation is commendable, Dart appears to be a step backward. Despite personal preferences, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS remain unavoidable for web developers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Google Dart – Reframed

The original FAQs are well-written and require minimal alteration for improved flow and conciseness. The following are minor adjustments:

• Why isn't Dart more popular? Dart's relatively recent introduction and smaller community compared to established languages like Java, Python, and JavaScript hinder its widespread adoption. However, its use in Flutter is increasing its visibility.

• What are Dart's advantages? Dart's versatility (client and server-side development), object-oriented nature, strong typing, performance (due to AOT compilation), and relatively easy-to-understand syntax are key benefits.

• Is Dart difficult to learn? Dart is considered relatively easy to learn, especially for those familiar with JavaScript or Java. Its clear syntax and comprehensive documentation aid beginners.

• Dart's role in Flutter: Flutter leverages Dart's declarative layout capabilities, eliminating the need for separate layout languages or visual interface builders, streamlining development.

• Dart's future: While not yet as prevalent, Dart's future is promising due to Flutter's growth and continued Google investment. Increased developer adoption is anticipated.

• Dart's suitability for web development: Yes, Dart's core libraries and support for client and server-side development make it suitable for web applications. JavaScript compilation ensures broad browser compatibility.

• Dart vs. JavaScript: Both have similarities, but Dart offers static and dynamic typing, while JavaScript is dynamically typed. Dart's syntax is more familiar to traditional programmers, but JavaScript boasts a larger community and more libraries.

• Dart for mobile app development: Dart, particularly with Flutter, enables high-performance cross-platform (iOS and Android) mobile app development from a single codebase.

• Resources for learning Dart: Google provides comprehensive documentation, language and library tours, and codelabs. Numerous online tutorials and courses are also available.

• Is Dart open source? Yes, Dart's open-source nature fosters community involvement and tool/library development.

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