In this first chapter, we've covered several of the basics that you'll build upon on your journey learning Flutter. The content covered here included how to use the Flutter CLI and how to test your installation with the flutter doctor command. You also saw how to try your apps on an emulator (Android) or a simulator (iOS).
We introduced Dart and its syntax: using the DartPad online tool, we looked at some of the Dart syntax, including variables, loops, using strings, the arrow syntax, lists, generics, and the Map() method.
We've touched upon the basics of object-oriented programming with classes and objects, including constructors, properties, and methods. Finally, we introduced Flutter and created our first Hello World app. We saw that almost every piece of UI in Flutter is a widget, and we introduced several basic widgets, including Center, Text, MaterialApp and Scaffold, Column, RaisedButton, and Image.
We modified the style of our app using the widgets' properties, such as choosing colors and sizing fonts. We also saw how to deal with the space on the screen with padding, and how to respond to events such as the click of a button.
Finally, we used an AlertDialog widget in order to give feedback to the user.
The topics introduced in this chapter will be the foundation of your progress in Flutter, and the skills that you have acquired here will allow you to follow along with the remaining projects of this book, and will be invaluable when developing your own apps.
In the next chapter, we'll introduce the concept of state, which will allow you to create interactive apps with Flutter.