Dart
/dahrt/ · noun · Development · Origin: 2011
Definitions
A client-optimized programming language developed by Google, primarily known as the language behind the Flutter UI framework. Dart supports both ahead-of-time and just-in-time compilation, enabling hot reload during development and native performance in production across mobile, web, and desktop platforms.
In plain English: Google's programming language used mainly with Flutter to build apps that work on phones, web, and desktop from a single codebase.
Example: Once you learn Dart for Flutter, you realize it's basically what Java would be if it were designed in 2011 instead of 1995.
Origin Story
Google's language for hitting the bullseye on cross-platform apps
Lars Bak and Kasper Lund at Google designed Dart, revealed at the GOTO conference in 2011. Originally positioned as a replacement for JavaScript in the browser, its ambitions were met with skepticism from the web development community.
The name **Dart** suggests speed and precision -- hitting a target directly. Internally at Google, the project was codenamed **Dash** before the public name was chosen. The short, punchy name reflected the language's goal of being fast to write and fast to execute.
Dart languished in relative obscurity until Google released **Flutter** in 2017, a cross-platform UI framework built on Dart. Flutter's success -- enabling a single codebase for iOS, Android, web, and desktop -- gave Dart a second life and a rapidly growing community.
Coined by: Lars Bak, Kasper Lund (Google)
Context: Google, 2011
Fun fact: Lars Bak also created the V8 JavaScript engine that powers Chrome and Node.js. He essentially created the engine that made JavaScript so fast that people questioned whether Dart was even needed.