Google has updated their class-based object-orientated language “Dart” after one full year. The dart team has launched the first stable version of Dart Software Development Kit (SD). According to the developers the SDK has faster virtual machine and can outperform Google’s V8 JavaScript engine. Dart compiles to JavaScript and thus can be used in all modern browsers and certainly it has the potential but then again it is far too young to evaluate its true potential.

Strangely, Google’s own Chrome browser does not currently offer built in support for Dart Virtual machine but you could use Dart to JavaScript translator to generate the code for any browser. The translator is available in the SDK. Here are the highlighting features of Dart SDK.

  • A faster Dart VM that outperforms V* engine.
  • New JavaScript translator that generates fast and compact codes.
  • HTML library that shall work on most of the modern browsers
  • Library to translate code to JavaScript
  • A new package manager “Pub”
  • Server side I/O library

Dart is definitely an ambitious project, but since most of the browser do not support it including chrome, its future is unclear. However, Google remains true to it and says that they will continue to work hard to evolve the SDK, improve its features and performance and fine tune it to backward compatibility.

To give a better picture, Google has released Dartium which is a Chromium built with Dart support. Perhaps it is the first step of introducing their new technology into chrome, and it is a good thing as well, injecting an unstable built on a mainstream browser could cost them their valued users. But again it remains a far stretch until proper support for other browsers arrive such as Firefox and Internet explorer.

The SDK, which is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, also includes Google’s open source Dart Editor and a Chromium build with native Dart support.

For more information about Dart, you can follow the official link.

Source: Techcrunch