
Why You Should Start Dart’ing Right Now - nathanpc
http://www.dreamintech.net/2012/04/why-you-should-start-darting-right-now/
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azakai
The article is basically marketing fluff.

And the main reason to not use Dart is alluded to in a quote in it,

> Dart compiles to JavaScript, so your Dart web apps will work in multiple
> browsers (not just ours).

which is misleading, since to that should be added "but they will run much
more slowly in IE, Firefox, WebKit and Opera", because none of them will embed
the nonstandard Dart VM, only Chrome will.

~~~
afsina
Personally unlike many people (even Dart guys) I care less about Javascript-
Cross Browser compatibility. I would not mind if things work faster only in
Chrome. Once there is a version of Chrome in IPhone and WP7, all bases are
covered. It would be a good platform to develop.

~~~
azakai
There will never be a version of Chrome for iPhone and WP7 (nor Firefox, nor
full Opera, etc.).

~~~
afsina
Windows 8 it is then.

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Yarnage
When you're able to take Dart and reliably, run it on both the server and the
web client then it may be interesting. Right now I don't see a good use case
for it right now.

For one, debugging client-side code is going to be annoying especially if you
end up running into a bug due to the Dart to JavaScript translation. You're
going to have to know Dart and JavaScript well in order to debug effectively.

The other side of the coin, server-side, as far as I can tell isn't really
ready for prime time (at least that's what the Dart language website says
unless I'm misunderstanding them).

Neat idea but I don't see the practicality yet. In all honestly I don't
understand the trend to move away from JavaScript especially when all it does
is translate into JavaScript. That seems like an extra layer of abstraction
that isn't very useful to me especially in debugging.

~~~
voxx
It won't be "finished" (ready for ACTUAL deployment) for at least a year or
so. The dev team is pretty small and the funding is pretty small.

The way dart works is that it compiles into optimized javascript that the
average javascripter wouldnt end up writing. The resulting code is weird and
wacky, but it usually works. From my own understanding, that's the cool part.

~~~
afsina
Do you consider 80 people team as small?
<http://code.google.com/p/dart/people/list>

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eaurouge
Not particularly impressed with the Dart comparisons to JavaScript on
<http://synonym.dartlang.org/>.

I'd rather use CoffeeScript.

Besides I'm not about to embark on yet another experiment, as a guinea pig,
with Google.

~~~
karterk
You're looking only at a part of the whole picture. Dart's vision is to offer
a complete framework and hence you should not judge it only based on the
language and syntax.

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abraxasz
I actually thought that the article was a joke (no offense). It starts off
saying "... how you can become more productive and happier", and then:

\- libraries are needed. And then it proceed to describe how if you want to
get something done you have to reinvent the wheel, or port it (which amounts
to the same insofar as it slows you down)

\- Weekly updates (in particular the bit on downloading the new build and
trying out the new features). How exactly does having to check for new
features (and test them) makes me write better code, faster?

\- ".. the code becomes a hell to understand. With the Dart syntax, this is a
bit more difficult.." Really? I'm sure this one is a typo. Or I'm missing
something.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Dart is not cool, or anything (I
haven't tried it). But based on the arguments in the article, I simply don't
see how exactly the language is a productivity boost..

~~~
nikdudnik
I've got same impression. It was really funny to read this.

------
rexreed
The website says ... "One of the biggest advantages of Dart is the vibrating
community..." . I'm quite curious to know about this vibrating community. Am I
missing something exciting here?

~~~
sjwright
Haven't you heard? The community is abuzz.

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redwood
I have to say, being a non-coder... it must be so incredibly difficult to know
how to start any given project with the countless languages out there.

Perhaps it's less messy than I imagine: maybe many of the trendy named
languages are just minor modifications or bridges between standards? Anyway
impressed you all negotiate this minefield so well.

As someone who wants to start to learn to code to build some basic web UI it
certainly is difficult to know where to start!

------
paulhauggis
I thought they said "sharting"..and I was thinking to myself..but I already
started!

