I’ve finally got around to attempting some mobile app development.
As we’ve chosen to use Flutter, it helps to install Flutter and it’s relevant dependencies onto your machine. Fortunately, like most of these frameworks, they have a handy installation guide. Easy.
Okay, Step 1; download the latest stable version of their SDK - that’s Software Development Kit. Easy, just click the button and it starts happening. Oh, okay, that’s 339.5 MB. I guess I’ll go make a cup of tea then. Is that done? Okay, yep. Nice. I’m so fucking good at being a developer.
Step 2: extract the file to the desired location. It even gives you the snippet to use:
cd ~/development
tar xf ~/Downloads/flutter_linux_v1.7.8+hotfix.4-stable.tar.xz
Well, my development is actually called workspace, but sure. God, I’m so clever for noticing that. Imagine if I put it in development. How dumb (scoffs in elitism).
Step 3: Add the Flutter tool to your path.
export PATH="$PATH:`pwd`/flutter/bin"
Urgh, gross. It’s fine though, since this will only be temporary. I’ll have to look into putting this into a permanent location another time.
Step 4: Optionally pre-download devel… (fades into the background as the command is already running).
Okay, what did that do?
The flutter tool downloads platform-specific development binaries as needed. For scenarios where pre-downloading these artifacts is preferable (for example, in hermetic build environments, or with intermittent network availability), iOS and Android binaries can be downloaded ahead of time by running:
flutter precache
Now you’re ready to run Flutter commands! Huzzah! Run this command to see if there is any dependencies you need to complete the setup!
flutter doctor
Oh, you need Android Studio as well. Obviously. (Eyes dart back and forth)
Okay, okay. Easy.
Step 1: Download and install Android Studio.
Easy, just click the button and it starts happening. Oh, okay, that’s 1037 MB. I guess I’ll go make a cup of tea then (he says sipping his fresh cup of tea).
Wait a minute…
I’m going to leave it here tonight, because the download will take a bit longer. Maybe I’ll write about the Android Studio install process tomorrow - but Flutter did take me 3 minutes!