Overview

Dart

Stacks4.0K

Followers3.8K

Votes452

WebAssembly

Stacks223

Followers218

Votes0

GitHub Stars8.2K

Forks818

Dart vs WebAssembly: What are the differences?

Introduction

Dart and WebAssembly are two technologies commonly used in web development. They have some key differences that set them apart from each other. In this article, we will explore six major differences between Dart and WebAssembly.

Execution Environment: Dart is a programming language developed by Google that can be run natively on multiple platforms, including web browsers, servers, mobile devices, and IoT devices. On the other hand, WebAssembly is a binary format that is executed in a sandboxed environment within the web browser.
Languages: Dart is a high-level, object-oriented language with a syntax similar to Java or JavaScript. It provides a wide range of language features and a comprehensive standard library. WebAssembly, on the other hand, is a low-level language that can be compiled from various source languages such as C, C++, Rust, and others.
Performance: Dart programs are executed by the Dart virtual machine (VM) or can be compiled to JavaScript for broader compatibility. The Dart VM provides efficient just-in-time (JIT) compilation, which can optimize code execution at runtime. WebAssembly, on the other hand, is designed to be fast and efficient, providing near-native performance.
Portability: Dart can be used to build web applications that run in web browsers, as well as native mobile apps for Android and iOS. It also supports server-side development. WebAssembly, on the other hand, is specifically designed for web browsers but can be used in other contexts via frameworks like Node.js.
Tooling and Ecosystem: Dart comes with a comprehensive set of development tools, including an IDE (IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio Code), package manager (Pub), and testing frameworks. It also has a growing ecosystem of libraries and frameworks. WebAssembly, being a binary format, requires specific tooling for compilation and optimization. It has a more limited ecosystem compared to Dart.
Maturity and Adoption: Dart has been around since 2011 and has gained a significant following, particularly in the Flutter community. It has matured over the years and is used in production by many companies. WebAssembly, on the other hand, is relatively newer and has seen rapid adoption. It is supported by major browser vendors and has gained popularity as a way to run computationally-intensive operations in web applications.

In summary, Dart is a versatile programming language that can be used across multiple platforms, while WebAssembly is a low-level binary format specifically designed for web browsers. Dart provides extensive tooling and a mature ecosystem, while WebAssembly offers near-native performance and broader language compatibility in the web environment.

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Advice on Dart, WebAssembly

Muhamed

Apr 28, 2020

Needs adviceon

Python

JavaScript

Django

I am currently learning web development with Python and JavaScript course by CS50 Harvard university. It covers python, Flask, Django, SQL, Travis CI, javascript,HTML ,CSS and more. I am very interested in Flutter app development. Can I know what is the difference between learning these above-mentioned frameworks vs learning flutter directly? I am planning to learn flutter so that I can do both web development and app development. Are there any perks of learning these frameworks before flutter?

737k views737k

Comments

Zuriel

Jun 7, 2020

Needs advice

Can anyone help me decide what's best for app development or even android Oreo development? I'm in a state dilemma at the moment. I want to do Android programming, not necessarily web development. I have heard a lot of people recommend one of these, and it seems that both the tools can do the job. Which language would you choose?

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Dart	WebAssembly
Dart is a cohesive, scalable platform for building apps that run on the web (where you can use Polymer) or on servers (such as with Google Cloud Platform). Use the Dart language, libraries, and tools to write anything from simple scripts to full-featured apps.	It is an open standard that defines a portable binary code format for executable programs, and a corresponding textual assembly language, as well as interfaces for facilitating interactions between such programs and their host environment.
Dart’s comprehensive libraries give you lots of choices;Compilation to JavaScript lets you deploy Dart apps now;Pub package manager;Dev Server	Efficient and fast; Safe; Open and debuggable; Part of the open web platform
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 8.2K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 818
Stacks 4.0K	Stacks 223
Followers 3.8K	Followers 218
Votes 452	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 59 Backed by Google 53 Flutter 39 Twice the speed of Javascript 35 Great tools 30 Scalable Cons 3 Locked in - JS or TS interop is very hard to accomplish 3 Lack of ORM 0 A	Cons 2 Security issues
Integrations
No integrations available	Rust C++ C lang

What are some alternatives to Dart, WebAssembly?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.