Welcome to Day 1 of the "Hundred Days of Flutter" course! Today, we'll set up your development environment and introduce you to the basics of Dart, the programming language used for Flutter development.

Course Introduction

"Hundred Days of Flutter" is designed to take you from a beginner to a competent Flutter developer in 100 days, spending just 2 hours per day. By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Build cross-platform mobile applications for iOS and Android
• Implement complex UI designs with Flutter's widget system
• Manage app state effectively
• Integrate with backend services and databases
• Deploy your applications to app stores

The course is structured into five phases:

1. Flutter Fundamentals (Days 1-20)
2. Architecture & State Management (Days 21-40)
3. Data & Backend Integration (Days 41-60)
4. Advanced UI & UX (Days 61-80)
5. Deployment & Advanced Topics (Days 81-100)

Each day builds upon the previous, so it's important to follow the course in order.

Setting Up Your Development Environment

Let's start by setting up everything you need to build Flutter apps.

Installing Flutter SDK

1. Go to the Flutter installation page
2. Select your operating system and follow the instructions

Setting Up an IDE

You can use either Visual Studio Code or Android Studio. Both are excellent choices for Flutter development.

Visual Studio Code Setup

1. Download and install VS Code
2. Install the Flutter and Dart extensions:
   • Open VS Code
   • Go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X)
   • Search for "Flutter" and install the Flutter extension (this will also install the Dart extension)

Android Studio Setup

1. Download and install Android Studio
2. Install the Flutter and Dart plugins:
   • Open Android Studio
   • Go to Preferences/Settings > Plugins
   • Search for "Flutter" and install the Flutter plugin (this will also install the Dart plugin)
   • Restart Android Studio

Setting Up Emulators/Simulators

Testing your apps requires either a physical device or an emulator/simulator.

Android Emulator

1. Open Android Studio
2. Go to Tools > AVD Manager
3. Click "Create Virtual Device"
4. Select a device (e.g., Pixel 4) and click "Next"
5. Select a system image (e.g., Android 11) and click "Next"
6. Name your AVD and click "Finish"

iOS Simulator (macOS only)

1. Install Xcode from the App Store
2. Open Xcode and accept the license agreement
3. Install additional components if prompted
4. Open Simulator from Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Simulator

Verifying Installation

Let's make sure everything is set up correctly:

1. Open a terminal/command prompt
2. Run flutter doctor
3. Address any issues reported by the doctor

The output should look something like this:

Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):
[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.10.6, on macOS 13.5.1)
[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices
[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS
[✓] Chrome - develop for the web
[✓] Android Studio (version 2022.2)
[✓] VS Code (version 1.81.1)
[✓] Connected device (2 available)
[✓] Network resources

Introduction to Dart

Flutter uses Dart as its programming language. Let's explore the basics of Dart.

What is Dart?

Dart is a client-optimized language developed by Google for building apps on multiple platforms. It's the language behind Flutter and is designed to be fast, object-oriented, and easy to learn.

Basic Syntax and Variables

Let's write our first Dart code:

void main() {
  // This is a comment
  print('Hello, Dart!');
 
  // Variables
  String name = 'Flutter Developer';
  int daysInCourse = 100;
  double hoursPerDay = 2.0;
  bool isExcited = true;
 
  // String interpolation
  print('Welcome, $name!');
  print('You will spend ${daysInCourse * hoursPerDay} hours in this course.');
 
  // var - type inferred by the compiler
  var age = 25; // int
  var price = 19.99; // double
 
  // final - value cannot be changed after initialization
  final String courseName = 'Hundred Days of Flutter';
 
  // const - compile-time constant
  const int weeksInCourse = 14;
}

Variable Types in Dart

Dart is a statically typed language, which means variable types are known at compile time. Here are the basic types:

• int: Integer values
• double: Floating-point numbers
• bool: Boolean values (true/false)
• String: Text values
• List: Ordered group of items
• Map: Key-value pairs
• Set: Unordered collection of unique items

Creating Your First Flutter App

Now, let's create our first Flutter application:

1. Open a terminal and run:

flutter create my_first_app
cd my_first_app

2. Open the project in your IDE

3. Run the app:

flutter run

You should see the default counter app that Flutter creates. Congratulations! You've just run your first Flutter app.

Exploring the Default App

Let's take a quick look at the structure of the default Flutter app:

• lib/main.dart: The main entry point for your app
• pubspec.yaml: Manages dependencies and assets
• android/ and ios/: Platform-specific code
• test/: Contains test files

Open lib/main.dart to see the code for the default counter app. Don't worry if you don't understand everything yet—we'll explore this in detail over the coming days.

Knowledge Check

Let's test your understanding of today's concepts:

Mini-Challenge: Personalize Your First App

Modify the default counter app to display your name instead of "Flutter Demo Home Page".

Here's how:

1. Open lib/main.dart
2. Find the line with title: 'Flutter Demo'
3. Change it to title: 'Your Name's App'
4. Find the MyHomePage class and modify its title parameter
5. Run the app to see your changes

Key Takeaways

• Flutter is a framework for building cross-platform mobile apps
• Dart is the programming language used for Flutter development
• Setting up your development environment requires installing the Flutter SDK, an IDE, and emulators
• Dart has various variable types and syntax features similar to other programming languages
• Flutter apps have a specific structure with the main code in lib/main.dart

Tomorrow, we'll dive deeper into Dart's control flow structures, functions, and more advanced language features.