News
UI Framework Trends
If you're investing time in learning Flutter and looking for reassurance that your investment will pay off in terms of Flutter's popularity as a framework, this chart from Stack Overflow should help.
App Store Scam?
It's sad to see scammers taking advantage of developers like this. Of course, you wonder how much of this sort of thing could be prevented if Apple just allowed developers to issue refunds directly, but that's a topic for another day. :-)
Tutorials
Free Flutter Course from the App Brewery
If you're brand new to Flutter and/or programming in general, you might this free course from the App Brewery helpful in coming up to speed. It contains the first ten hours of Angela Yu's Complete Flutter Development Bootcamp, which also seems like a decent deal for ten bucks.
Understanding Null Safety
Just when I think I'm finished linking to articles about the upcoming null safety feature in Dart, Google drops this gigantic article diving into the details. Null safety support could have a huge impact on code you've already written, so coming up to speed on this topic is critical.
Will the effort to convert your code over to use this new language feature be worth it? Only you can answer for your own situation, but as this article states, "...once you absorb all of that and get your code into the world of null safety, you get a sound program that the compilers can optimize and where every place a runtime error can occur is visible in your code."
Architecture
Choosing the Right Database for Your Flutter App
Deciding how to store data locally on the user's device can be full of trade-offs. This new article by Lew C introduces some of the ideas you'll need to keep in mind as you make your own decisions regarding data storage, whether you're considering a NoSQL, Relational, or homegrown approach.
I Abandoned Hive, Moved to Sembast
Just when you thought you had the local data storage thing figured out, this reddit thread covers an alternative to the data storage tool Hive, adding something of a counterbalance to Lew C's article mentioned above.
Flutter Jobs
Flutter Interview Questions and Answers
If you're preparing for a Flutter-related job interview, or just want to assess your own knowledge of Flutter, Jonathan's list of possible interview questions and answers may come in handy. He's thoughtfully separated these into categories of increasing complexity, from questions suitable for junior-level positions all the way up to more senior roles.
// From Mark
Keeping Up with Flutter
Every week I've published this newsletter so far, I've wondered if I'll have enough material for the next issue. And so far, I've been pleasantly surprised by what comes along during the week -- to the point this week where the newsletter practically wrote itself.
One of the more exciting developments this week is news of how popular the Flutter framework is becoming, as noted by Tim Sneath in our first article below. Also dropping this week was a very long and detailed write-up on null safety in Dart, something I think we all need to keep an eye on.
Enjoy!
Mark Winters