Introduction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_(programming_language) is a language created by Google to replace Javascript. It is targetting a VM (DartVM).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutter_(software) is a framework to create native, web, or mobile apps (from the same code) written in Dart.

Status

Dart: It’s supported for Windows on Arm for Dev Channel and latest binaries are available here (or on this page: https://dart.dev/get-dart/archive#dev-channel ).

Flutter: Build from source works, and flutter engine binaries are available. Compile natively flutter app is now supported (https://github.com/flutter/flutter/pull/141930 ). Cross compilation is not upstream, but you can use this PR if you’re interested: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/pull/142431.

See this design document for details: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yuexY-EtzeVhU3V6RGBII_kH-znLSkQCspzW70jayZk/edit?resourcekey=0-8pQRSXSHQlwOo7QtCVLvBA and open issues https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/62597.

Flutter App

Since Dart and Flutter engine are now built upstream, we document how to simply create, build and run a flutter App.

If you’re interested in manually building dart or flutter itself, you can follow other instructions on this page.

git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter
flutter/bin/flutter.bat create app
cd app
../flutter/bin/flutter.bat build windows
file build/windows/arm64/runner/Release/app.exe
# on windows-x64, it will build an x64 app instead

If you’re interested in cross compilation, take a look at this PR: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/pull/142431

Setup (common to both projects)

Note: This is needed only if you intend to build dart and flutter manually. Upstream artifacts are now available for windows-arm64, so there is no need to build this manually.

Those two projects are built using chromium build system (https://gn.googlesource.com/gn/ , a cmake like, and depot_tools_tutorial(7) ). Both projects provide wrappers to build, without the need to call gn directly.

get visual studio components

you need to install ATL libraries for your visual studio version.

get windows sdk debuggers

you need to install debuggers from Windows SDK - Windows app development . Dart/Flutter build search for dbgcore.dll and dbghelp.dll.

get python3

python3.exe should be available on the PATH. arm64 version should be installed as it is used by depot_tools to identify cpu architecture.

When installing python on windows, only python.exe is available. You need to copy it (duplicate it) as python3.exe.

get depot_tools

First, you need to retrieve depot_tools from this URL, and unzip it

Then, add following directories to your PATH:

# contains ninja.exe and other binaries for windows
depot_tools/.cipd_bin
# main scripts (fetch, gsync, ...)
depot_tools/

set environment

# force to get local toolchain (needed when you're not a Google employee)
set DEPOT_TOOLS_WIN_TOOLCHAIN=0

Dart

Note: Dart artifacts are now built upstream, and it’s not needed to build this manually.

Clone

fetch dart
cd sdk

Build

python3 ./tools/build.py --arch arm64 --mode release create_sdk --no-goma

Test

python3 ./tools/test.py -mrelease --arch=arm64 --runtime=vm --compiler=none vm
# you can select other test suites than "vm"

Run

Create file named hw.dart with this content:

void main() {
  print('Hello, World!');
}

You can run it using:

# execute directly
out/ReleaseXARM64/dart.exe run hw.dart
# compile it to bytecode
out/ReleaseXARM64/dart.exe compile kernel hw.dart -o hw.dill
# run from bytecode
out/ReleaseXARM64/dart.exe run hw.dill

Flutter

Note: Flutter artifacts are now built upstream, and it’s not needed to build this manually.

Clone

fetch flutter
cd src

Build engine

set GYP_MSVS_OVERRIDE_PATH='C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community'
# --no-goma: is google distributed build system (only for Googlers)
python3 ./flutter/tools/gn --no-goma --windows-cpu arm64 --target-dir host_debug
ninja -C out/host_debug

CI

Flutter uses GitHub Actions Workflow runs · flutter/flutter

Binary availability

Flutter (prebuilt) binaries are automatically downloaded first time flutter command is run. Based on current cpu architecture, it will download native windows-x64 or windows-arm64 binaries.

git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter
cd flutter
./bin/flutter --help