This week in Flutter #10

Recently GitHub (Microsoft) introduced Copilot, a tool that uses AI to write code. It uses OpenAI Codex, a system similar to GPT-3. If you did not understand a single word, do not worry. Watch this video from Mangirdas Kazlauskas to find out how it performs on Flutter.

Will we all be replaced by AI in the future? No idea, but they said similar things about Low Code/No Code, and that did not happen yet.

🧑‍💻 Development

How to make your own native library bindings with Dart FFI

In this series of articles, Maksim Lin shares his experience in using Dart FFI to be able to playback audio on Linux. I am looking forward to the next articles in the series.

Working with Firebase Cloud Firestore made easier with "withConverter()"

In version 2.2.0 of the Firestore Flutter package, the Firebase team introduced withConverter, which allows interacting with collections/documents in a type-safe way. Chinmay Kabi shows us how to use it. I must say I added a TODO in the projects I am working on to use it there as well.

Exploring Flutter Navigator 2.0: VRouter

I have implemented Navigation 2.0 in a couple of apps for now, and I am not very happy with it: boilerplate code and increased complexity are my major concerns with it. VRouter might make it simpler. In this article, Naveen Srivastava shows us how to get started with it. Before using it you must take into account that it replaces MaterialApp.

Mixing packages that don't support null safety in Flutter

What do you do when you are migrating to null-safety, but there is just one package which is not updated yet? You do not migrate! Or you can use Jordan Holland's approach described in this article. I would go for not migrating yet. 😅

🗄 Backend

Building a Post Scheduling App with HarperDB & Flutter

This is Alberto Bonacina's article for the hackathon I advertised last week. I think this is my favorite so far. It is simple and useful. He might even publish the app in the stores.

🧑‍🎨 Design

Building Complex UI in Flutter: Magic 8-Ball

A new tutorial from raywenderlich.com. Create a 3D magic 8-ball.

Unbounded height / width | Decoding Flutter

You need to watch this video from the Flutter team. Filip Hráček, with the help of some funny animations, explains what happens when you get an "Unbounded height" error. One hundred pixels!

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