Dart 1.13 has been released with improved JavaScript interoperability.

Dart was developed by Google as an alternative to JavaScript, and many developers have been attracted to it because of this. However, while it provides a way to program structured code for the web, it hasn't toppled JavaScript from its leading place.

In this new version of Dart, the easier JavaScript interoperability comes via a new syntax for creating Dart API facades for existing JavaScript libraries. According to a post on the Dart News and Updates page:

"Facades have the benefits you expect from a Dart library: errors, warnings, and code navigation. They also provide the Dart-to-JavaScript compiler the structure needed to provide interoperability with low code size and runtime cost."

You can use the js package to create Dart APIs for your favorite JavaScript libraries, and the new version has an example port of the Chart.js library so you can see how to use facades in your code. The Dart developers are working on tools to generate JS facades from other typed-JavaScript implementations.

The other main improvement to the new version is to secure networking. Dart has changed to using BoringSSL, a streamlined, Google-maintained implementation of OpenSSL. The change means the developers have updated related APIs to use a standard PEM file for certificates and keys.

Some commentators doubt whether Google will continue work on Dart, pointing out that:

"Google also has Angular 2.0 which is written in typescript. With TypeScript and ES 6.0 Dart will probably be abandoned."

However, as Google moved Dart to Github earlier in the year, the language could continue no matter what Google does.

More Information

Dart on GitHub

Dart website

Dart News

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