INTERLUDIUM: How do I study Flutter and Dart.

 Hey everyone,

Indeed, it has been a while since my last article, here in my Blog.

The last 2 weeks I have done almost nothing other than studying. Back to the basics I had already done once. But now I have started studying purposefully. There is so much information available and it is all so interesting. But I carried a lot of information that is actually irrelevant.

In order to be able to study in a more structured way, I split my studies into two groups.

• I read what is interesting but not directly relevant and I save it in a kind of information folder. And every article gets a tag from me. The tag tells me what it is about and where I could possibly use this information. But this group is not ready knowledge.
• The second group is knowledge that can be used immediately. How do I know what will end up in this group? You can read that below.

To be able to lead the study you need a goal. Otherwise you don't really know what to study first, and which subjects to follow. The only way to have a goal in programming is a project.

What I write here is only from experience and is not a scientific article. I can only say that this is ultimately the best and the only way for me to achieve my goal as a Developer in a structured way.

How did I proceed.

I chose an app that I wanted to build. The choice of the app had the following conditions for me.

• I need to master the subject of the app. In my case an app that guides tourists in my village. So I also know where to get my content from the app.
• The app should not be too complicated. Not too many screens and options.
• And I chose not to use too many animations.
• I also kept the UI simple. I did make a prototype in Figma.

Now that I know what my app is going to do, I can start looking for the building blocks of my app. For example, in my app I want to show which events are taking place in my village.

In other words I need a list showing my events. So I started looking through Flutter Dev website, Youtube and all other possible channels for the possibility to display lists. There were several options for making lists. But the information revealed that I had a list of unknown length. It has become a Listview.builder. How to implement this I started searching on Youtube and the official documentation.

But to build a list I need data. So how can I store data to display in that list? And so on.

And in this way you build up a structure with directly relevant knowledge.

What I impose on myself is to only use building blocks that I understand 100% before I switch to another building block. And sometimes that is not always the best way to program something, but it will come later, in a subsequent study round.

And that next round of studies is where I am now.

I have built a large part of my app and the app works, without errors. And what can be done differently and better? Did I catch all the mistakes? Can I manage the data better? Does the app work smoothly? What feedback have I received from acquaintances and friends?

In this study round I can therefore choose a subject described above. And going to study this subject down to the very root.

For example, which part did I dig to the bottom? The ScrollController in all its facets. But also how I can implement this with the state Management package Riverpod and HookWidgets of my choice. Another topic is how I can cash my read out data, from the backend, on the device, and still get the new data with every new start of the app. And so there are still subjects that are already or still have to be studied.

What I find very important throughout this package is mental health. It is a lonely road that you take. And it is sometimes difficult to find the courage to move on every day. Therefore, join a community. A group of people with the same goal, and who also support each other in the difficult moments. Not only with solutions to code problems, but sometimes just to have a chat. And above all to get the feeling that you are not alone.

If any of you would like to talk further about this topic, please let us know in the comments. I myself am a member of Max Weber's Flutter Explained community.

Until next time,

Do, believe and be happy,

Stefaan