HOT Reload Feature Makes Google Flutter Favourite Mobile App Framework

Google’s Flutter is aptly named, ushering in revolutionary cross-platform app development capabilities through the SDK. This takes on the open source framework of Facebook, rising in popularity, facilitating the development of highly responsive native apps. The SDK has created quite a ‘flutter’ with its impressive abilities. One of the hottest features offered by the kit is the ‘hot reload’ option that facilitates the swift development, experimentation and fixing of bugs.

How Hot Reload becomes a differentiator

At the heart of any app development lies the need for making changes and rendering the same in a manner that permits developers to view the changes. Hot Reload offers this advanced option in a simplified and de-cluttered manner. The source code files are injected directly into the general purpose programming langue – Dart VM. Dart VM is an approved standard for building web and mobile applications. Post the injection of the code, the VM updates the same, replacing fields and functions, and this triggers Flutter to render the changes, rebuilding the widget tree. The combination of these actions permits developers to swiftly take a look at the resultant effects of the changes that have been made in the code files.

Why Flutter’s Hot Reload beats features of competitors

While React Native has been used to create popular apps, including Facebook Ads Manager and Instagram, Flutter too has captured the imagination of the developer community by virtue of features that include the Hot Reload. While Hot Reload is also available as an option in React Native, the speed leaves a lot to be desired, and Flutter scores over the competition through impressive speed.
Flutter’s Hot Reload executes the changes in the app from the exact spot where it was running at the time of executing the Hot Reload feature. Execution continues after the code is updated and the best part of Flutter is the clear distinction between re-building and re-execution of widgets. All widgets are re-built post execution of the code, while the code which is involved in the rebuilding of widgets gets to be re-executed.

Advantages of Stateful Hot Reload

Developers typically wish to see the changes that are affected in the context of the existing state of the app. This permits additional changes to be made. If the state of the app also undergoes changes as a result of the changes, the value that is created through the modification can never be ascertained. This is exactly why Stateful Hot Reload offers advantages to the development process. The changes can be viewed in isolation in the context of the existing state of the app to understand the value addition and the impact. This is different from a Hot/Full Restart which is part of the process of debugging.

High-speed cross-platform and native app development

The open source kit enables high-speed development with the Hot Reload taking milliseconds to inject the code and render the changes. This permits developers to use fully-customizable widgets and build native interfaces in the shortest possible time. With reload times that are the least, Flutter helps developers to check out the effects without losing state, when working on iOS and Android devices. The flutter gets its due in the comparison of Flutter vs React Native in the state of performance scaling for the developers.

Fastest compilation and steady reloads

The compilation in native code - Android NDK, LLVM, AOT enables Flutter to compile the code at record speeds, which is as close as possible to native performance. The size of projects has very little impact on the reload speeds. Generally hot reloads remain consistent at around 650 ms and this consistency across large projects makes it one of the most reliable and fast option. With hybrid mobiles becoming popular, Flutter scores high on this parameter, by helping developers to rely on the same code base to build apps for iOS and Android. This dispenses with the need for rewriting the code again.

Hot Reloads permit the app developers to proceed flexibly with the project, without having to repeatedly recompile an app. The process of repetition of command lines will drag down the schedules, while at the same time increasing the chances of errors. With Hot Reload, changes do not warrant recompilation, as Flutter automatically renders changes to the relevant widgets, while maintaining the state. Hot Reload is certainly a hot feature that lends a force multiplier effect to Flutter. With all the features and compatibility its anticipated Airbnb to move its app development from react native to Google Flutter by 2019.