Dart
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Definition of Dart
Approved as an Ecma standard (ECMA-408), Dart is a general purpose programming language which was created by Google. Its major use is in the creation applications for web, servers, mobiles and Internet of Things devices. Dart possesses a BSD license and is an open source software.
Dart has a syntax quite similar to that of C and can transcompile into JavaScript optionally. It is single inheritance, class based and object oriented language. Dart has support for mixins, interfaces, reified generics, optional typing and abstract classes.
In order to be used on Web browsers, Dart requires a source-to-source compiler to JavaScript. When Dart code is being run in a web browser, it has to be precompiled into JavaScript using a compiler known as the dart2js.once it is compiled as JavaScript, it is compatible with most of the browsers being used nowadays.
As the compiled JavaScript output is optimized to reduce exhaustive operations, at times, Dart code runs faster than the same code written in JavaScript. In addition, Dart code can be run directly in some Google Chromium browsers and standalone Software Development Kits to be used in command line interface.
A History of Dart
The GOTO conference took place during 10th – 12th October 2010 at Aarhus, Denmark. It was here that the Dart programming language was revealed for the first time. The Dart project had been initiated by Lars Bak, a Danish programmer famous for his work on virtual machines and contributions to the creation of Google Chrome browsers and Kasper Lund, a software engineer.
In order to standardize the newly created programming language, Ecma International made a technical committee known as the TC52. The fact that Dart codes can be compiled into JavaScript have made the language quite compatible with many modern day web browsers. This led to its inevitable standardization in July 2014, when Ecma International approved the first edition of the Dart language specification at the 107th General Assembly of the international body.
Around six months later, in December 2014, yet another edition of the Dart language specification was approved by Ecma International. It is the second edition of the Dart language specification.
The first compiler which could generate JavaScript codes from those of Dart was known as the dartc, but it was later condemned by Google. It was followed by Frog, a compiler written in Dart, nut it could not compile the codes completely. The third compiler was the dart2js which was also written in Dart and is still being used.