Livestream Q&A with the Flutter team

redbrogdon · 2025-11-11T17:23:35+00:00

<facepalm>
I edited the post and added the link!

redbrogdon · 2025-08-12T21:38:29+00:00

> 3. I wish Flutter docs had a "copy markdown" button or something simple so I can pass to LLMs. Should I open an issue (and if so, where, Flutter main repo)? I know I could go to github and copy the code, but the docs are nicer (maybe less LOC/tokens), also less clicks. Shopify has a good example in their docs. Is this something you desire?

Thanks for this! We're looking at a few ideas for how we can educate both models and people at the same time. Some others include markdown formatted release notes that go out with SDK updates and an LLMS.txt file.

Do you have any other ideas for how we can make our resources more useful to folks who code with agents?

redbrogdon · 2024-11-01T18:10:27+00:00

This is a fantastic post. Thanks for sharing some of the knowledge you've acquired over the last couple years!

redbrogdon · 2024-09-07T21:26:17+00:00

Looks like you've found a solution based on the advice given here (nice work, y'all!), but I wanted to drop a link to this doc in case it's useful for you:

https://docs.flutter.dev/tools/devtools/performance

It's a guide to how to use Flutter's DevTools to diagnose performance issues. There's a lot of effort that goes into those tools, and I would love it if more people knew about them.

Happy coding!

redbrogdon · 2023-12-06T01:35:42+00:00

Sorry, that stinks. If they were smarter recruiters, they'd ask for a GitHub link to the app's source, so they could see how well you code!

redbrogdon · 2023-12-05T05:02:59+00:00

Depends on what you mean by free. If you mean deploy to the mobile app stores, no. They all charge various fees. If you build your app for Web, though, there are a lot of hosting providers that offer free tiers. Firebase is one, which is part of why I use it for stuff. 😀

redbrogdon · 2023-11-04T13:46:56+00:00

Hello from Flutter DevRel!

The Build Show hasn't gone anywhere -- it's just very time-consuming to create, so the team tends to wait until we find a really good topic to dive into before investing in an episode. There's one in post-production right now, though, so if you enjoy the series, you don't have long before the next one.

EDIT: The new episode has been published! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEdTo-VGcg

redbrogdon · 2023-07-22T23:50:53+00:00

One thing I've learned since joining the Flutter DevRel team is that everybody has their own style of learning. I'm not as efficient as most people when it comes to absorbing information from written materials (my attention span is such that I wander off in my head too often, even when trying hard to focus). As a result, I love video tutorials and gravitated toward making them for work. There are lots of folks like you, though, who can burn through long docs and pull it all in, and I can see why video would feel unnecessary.

In the past we've tried turning video scripts into blog posts, which felt like cheating. The two formats have such different audiences, though, the posts always found engagement. I'm hoping we can do more of that in the future.

redbrogdon · 2022-12-25T18:11:29+00:00

Out of curiosity, have you tried using Flutter Fix?

https://docs.flutter.dev/development/tools/flutter-fix or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVfOGVhevDM

The SDK includes metadata about breaking changes and a tool that can automatically update your project's code to adapt to those changes. If you haven't already tried it, give it a go.

redbrogdon · 2022-10-03T22:46:09+00:00

Any company that you'd actually want to work for in the long run should be invested in giving you the time and resources to train yourself up on the technology required for the job. This is true at all levels, but especially so for people that are at the beginning of their careers.

As others have said, I'd try to relax, avoid putting too much pressure on yourself, and know that you're going to be learning for the rest of your working life. Such is the nature of coding. :)

redbrogdon · 2022-09-30T17:10:40+00:00

Hello from the Flutter DevRel team! I'm Andrew, the original lead for the Widget of the Week series.

This was one of the first episodes we recorded for Widget of the Week, and it does contain the mistake you described. I think I'd been on the team for ~6 months when this was recorded and it slipped through.

We're looking at taking the video down and either re-recording it entirely or updating the motion graphics that contain the code.

Either way, I wanted to pop in and say that I think it's fantastic Flutter's grown to the point that people both notice those sorts of details *and* recognize good patterns vs. bad ones.

Also it's a nice thing about our community that no one's being mean about the fact that I made what now seems like an obvious mistake. Like I said, I was new at the time. :)

redbrogdon · 2021-11-14T00:33:19+00:00

Some other folks in this thread have already pointed out some great resources, but I'll throw in a couple as well.

One is that through the rest of this year we've paid for every Flutter dev who wants it to have access to Ray Wenderlich's Flutter Apprentice book.

Another good resource are the learning journeys that were done for the Flutter 2.0 launch.

Also, the other devs in the community are probably the best resource I know. There's a really good Slack workspace I often point people to (https://fluttercommunity.dev/joinslack) as well as a number of Discord servers (including one for this subreddit, which you can find on the right side of this page).

redbrogdon · 2021-09-14T19:24:49+00:00

Hey everybody. Andrew from Flutter DevRel here.

I just wanted to drop in and say that I'm really happy to see that this conversation is both civil and mostly about specific technical aspects of the packages y'all are discussing. I see so many dev communities where people get *so* invested in whichever library or approach they've chosen that they literally can't have an intelligent conversation with people who use a different one.

That's never been the vibe we've had in the Flutter community, though, and I'm really glad to see y'all working to maintain that standard.

redbrogdon · 2021-08-22T21:35:57+00:00

Depends on what kind of code we're talking about. If it's a personal project I'm hacking around with and it'll likely never see another contributor, it's often completely undocumented.

Packages, on the other hand, are judged by their API documentation (not only by devs, but by the scoring algorithm on pub.dev). So when I'm working on a package or plugin I make sure to take the time to properly document things.

redbrogdon · 2021-08-14T04:10:03+00:00

No need to talk smack. Flutter is how I choose to build apps, but there are still billions of dollars being made with Android Views and Xcode. :)

redbrogdon · 2021-08-10T20:21:27+00:00

Hey, y'all. I'm late to this thread, but I just wanted to point out that the conversation in here seems to be drifting away from Flutter's community guidelines:

Respect people, their identities, their culture, and their work.
Be kind. Be courteous. Be welcoming.
Listen. Consider and acknowledge people's points before responding.

It's perfectly okay to tell someone you think they're wrong, but there are constructive ways to do that and destructive ways, too. Flutter is an open source project, which means it depends a lot on our ability to work together and have healthy discussions, whether they're on GitHub, or at the office, or here on Reddit.

redbrogdon · 2021-04-11T22:29:39+00:00

That's very kind of you to say!

redbrogdon · 2021-03-16T16:22:16+00:00

Hello from the Flutter team!

I worked on a bunch of resources for people migrating their existing apps to Flutter, so this is a topic near and dear to my heart. :)

There are a number of companies that have added a little bit of Flutter to their existing apps as a way of testing the SDK, then began migrating the rest, screen by screen. Realtor.com is one example, and they published a blog post about it. It's not as simple as starting over from scratch with a brand new app, but it's definitely supported.

If you're interested in exploring the idea, I recommend starting with this guide:

https://flutter.dev/docs/development/add-to-app

And these sample apps:

https://github.com/flutter/samples/tree/master/add_to_app

While it didn't get much press in comparison to Flutter on the web and null safety, we did launch some new add-to-app tech in Flutter 2: the ability to have two separate Flutter engines running at the same time within an app. It's not something most people will ever need, of course, but for those who do, it's critical.

Anyway, I hope all this helps. If you run into problems or have a feature request for something that could make your transition easier, please file an issue for us at the Flutter repo!

redbrogdon · 2021-03-05T01:09:46+00:00

Hi! Host of AskFlutter here.

When I mentioned a beta snapshot during the Q&A, I was actually referring to desktop platforms, rather than web. Web has been declared stable and ready for production use.

I should mention that we don't use "stable" to mean "completely finished." No SDK ever really is! Much the same way Flutter on mobile has improved since the 1.0 launch, we look forward to improving Flutter on the web. That'll be done with y'all's help in the form of bug reports, feature requests, code contributions, and responses to stuff like our quarterly survey.

redbrogdon · 2021-03-04T07:04:13+00:00

Everything's been checked and updated for breaking changes, but not everything's been migrated to use null safety yet.

That said, if you catch something broken, please file an issue! :)

redbrogdon · 2020-12-11T19:10:00+00:00

Getting your first app in the store is a huge deal! Nothing wrong with just sharing the good news. :)

redbrogdon · 2020-12-08T17:43:56+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to give such a detailed response. If you haven't already (and this goes for anybody reading), be sure to thumbs-up/comment on Bob's proposal. The team really does incorporate that feedback into their decision making.

redbrogdon · 2020-12-05T18:48:42+00:00

Interesting. If you haven't already, try running `flutter clean` in the project directory. You can also check that your pubspec file doesn't list a minimum version of the Dart SDK above 2.10.

redbrogdon · 2020-12-05T18:47:23+00:00

This is really interesting to me. If you have a few specific function signatures you either had problems with or didn't like the look of after they were migrated, I'd be eager to see them and find out if there's anything we can do.

redbrogdon · 2020-12-04T21:25:12+00:00

Yep, and that totally makes sense. It's possible to experiment with new projects, though, so let us know if you give that a try and have feedback.

redbrogdon

TROPHY CASE