I was perusing WhatsApp yesterday evening at around 1945 hours in an attempt to take few minutes off from the JavaScript project I’m working on and I chanced upon a status update posted by a much older friend of mine.

It was a nice visualization of the year’s progress so far.

42% complete…

2024 is already 41.64_ complete_ 🔽__Time flies_ and every second counts. Don_t let the days slip away. Make the most of the present moment and take action now_ Whether it_s starting a new project_ learning a new skill_ or simply making a #soulmatevisuals | Soulmate visuals | Soulmate visuals · Original audio

The time is now 2001 hours… I had a brief power outage and also rendered some help to someone on a Python project with a looming deadline.

How The Day Unfolded Pt. 1

I got up quite early (successfully switched off multiple alarms I had set 🤦🏽‍♂️) and could not make it to church service… So, I streamed the church service on YouTube.

Afterwards, I spent some time reflecting, thinking and planning. I thought of the week that lies ahead and all the deadlines this week and beyond. Wrote them down in my journal (my journal is running low on storage, by the way).

Eventually got around to doing some dishes, whipped up some fried ramen (noodles), and made a mental note of what I wanted to achieve with the rest of today. Then got to my campus around 1430 hours.

I’m writing this post now and listening to some lo-fi tracks from a Spotify playlist I curated and titled, Dexter’s Pick: Tournament Arc. While I’m writing, Super Three by Cospe came up (great track, tbh).

P.S. I’ve now put it on repeat

I have a thing for listening to music while I’m coding, writing or reading…

How The Day Unfolded Pt. 2

As part of my reflections, I assessed my output and performance in the past week and the past 153 days… And I reached a simple conclusion…

“You need to be and do more…”

Yes, I can be very hard on myself (smiles 😅).

As a result of my reflections, thoughts and planning exercise, I went over my deadlines for this week (three of them). I succeeded in not overthinking about them.

I formulated an actionable plan (which is still under revision) to get them all done and I resolved that I will stick to the plan.

So, that’s that…

I sub-consciously keep these pieces short, hoping not to bore you.

With that, you’ve reached the end…

Cheers to you… Cheers to me… May all our dreams come true

GOD bless you!

As always… I’m rooting for you!

It’s June and I thought to ask, where are you at with your goals, dreams and plans for the year? Thinking about throwing in the towel?

152 days gone in 2024 and quite the past 5 months it has been for me and certainly for you as you read this peace.

In this time, I’ve learnt a lot and had oddly unique experiences. I got up quite early this morning and had a brief moment of reflections on the days gone and I reached a simple conclusion… There is a sharp contrast between who I am now and who I was upon the dawn of this year.

The time is now 1736 hours…

I experienced power outage issues and I also needed to submit a Flutter project I’ve been working on for the last 5 days…

The Time Is Going to Pass Anyway

Whether you’ve crushed your goals for the 2024 in the past 5 months or you still on the island of confusion, impostor syndrome and self-doubt…

I want you to know that the time is going to pass anyway and life goes on and you’re doing you a disservice when you beat yourself up over what’s in the past that you cannot.

Best believe that life goes on regardless of how you feel right now and what you’ve been able to achieve and accomplish (or not) this year. What’s done is done.

You Can’t Give Up Now

Right now, you can choose to sit back with folded arms and give up on the rest of the year…

Or you can set your sights on the remaining 214 days ahead, planning and strategizing with diligence what you want and desire your life to be like at the end of the next 7 months.

Where did you write your goals, plans and resolutions for 2024? Where are notes of 2024 milestones?

Pick them back up and dust them. There’s still much ground to cover and more challenges that lie ahead.

214 Days To Go

The time is now 1845 hours…

I have a couple more projects to handle… This time, my good old friends Java and JavaScript.

If you’re seeing this, you’re not a common person. You’re here for a reason.

So, the rest of 2024…

Cheers to the days ahead… Cheers to the plethora of experiences and opportunities that lie ahead.

May your June and the days ahead be kind to you. (See what I did there?)

Cheers to your growth… Cheers to your becoming.

Don’t give up now… You’ve got this.

I’m rooting for you.

It’s Sunday, May 26th and it’s 1345 hours…

.

I was ruminating a train of thoughts this past week and I had a grand idea…

.

Some of the voices in my head tried to get me second guess myself and abandon this idea, with impostor syndrome and doubt being the loudest of them…

.

Other voices urged and pushed me to embark on this idea and get started with it… What could possibly go right?

.

In the mean time, celebrate life today… Count your blessings, name them one by one…

.

Oh by the way… The latter group of voices won the mental duel

The day is Friday. It is May 3rd, and the time is 0030 hours WAT. I just finished devouring one of four oranges I bought on my way back from my campus at around 2315 hours. I am about to dig into the second orange when two independent events cause my mind to begin pondering about life and I decide to document my thoughts.

The first event was a tweet I saw a few minutes ago on X (formerly Twitter), and this tweet in focus was a quote to another tweet posted two days prior. The former (the quote tweet), being a response, had a much more positive (more like wise) message as opposed to the latter (the prior tweet) which in itself had a disturbingly negative and discouraging message. To give your mind a more concrete image, the prior tweet said, and I quote:

“Don’t get attached, they’ll leave… People really leave”

The quote tweet was a total and complete opposite, and it said:

“Please get attached. Humans were built for community. Our mental health is very strongly related to the quality of relationships that we have.

If they leave, that’s fine. People do. We’re all on different journeys.

Don’t rob yourself of love. Get attached, but wisely.”

The second event, however, is the resultant effect of my reflections on everything that I have experienced in the past 15 months where dates, places and memories come back effortlessly in 4K image and video quality. In my reflections, one date seems to stick out — the day my girlfriend died.

No, do not get emotional for me (yes, that’s a direct command). The objective of this piece is not to get you to feel sorry or sombre for me.

And as you read further, you’d discover that this piece is about love and is also not about love (stay with me).

The common factor which exists between these two independent events is shrouded in the title of the piece… Risk, Failure and Regret.

Risk

In Christian and Islam beliefs, the word “faith” occurs in both and should be no stranger to your ears. A somewhat generally accepted definition of “faith” within a religious context refers to actionable steps taken in a particular direction with the hope and expectation that the endgame has a favourable outcome, most times not knowing what lies between the start and finish lines. What “faith” is to the religious mind, is what “risk” is to the scientific and logical mind.

Ever heard the saying, “no risk, no reward”? I’d add to that by saying, “no risk, no reward, no failure and no regret”.

The word “risk” is often used to refer to the likelihood (or unlikelihood) of a certain action having a really positive or a really negative outcome. Regardless, an outcome is assured and is certainly guaranteed.

For this piece, I’d define “risk” as embarking into uncharted and virgin territories in hopes that the odds and the eventual outcomes end up in your favor, yet unaware of what could possibly happen along the way.

Now, it makes sense why “risk” and “faith” are used interchangeably, and other times, used together.

I am convinced (and I know that you are aware) that no action nor venture in life is void of risk, be it calculated, uncalculated or miscalculated.

Every morning, we step out with the hopes and expectations that the plans and outcomes of that day is favorable, although not fully knowing what lies ahead. So it is with love, a new job, a new career path, a new financial investment, or even a trip to a location over a long distance.

It is a risk to step out in the morning. It is a risk to love and be in love. It is a risk to take that trip. It is a risk to embark on any financial investment. It was a risk I took in February 2023 to ask out my girlfriend (now of blessed memory).

The reality of risks is that their eventual outcomes is inevitable and could either be really favorable or otherwise, hence “no risk, no reward, no failure, no failure”.

Failure

Failure… The one thing nobody wants to become nor experience.

Years ago, I read somewhere that failure is not in having the first action yield a negative result; failure is in choosing to quit, give up and let go because the first action yielded a negative result and our conscious refusal to learn valuable lessons from that single negative result.

Too often at times, we journey into our own heads, cultivate a personal fear of failure and we wonder why we can’t seem to push past and overcome certain levels of achievements in our lives, all because we are too scared to fail (or so we think).

A bad day truly does not equal to a bad life, yet we allow a single bad day, a failed attempt, and/or a negative result cloud our vision and keep us from pushing further and hinder us from striving for more and really discovering who we are and what we are truly capable of.

Taking a cue from our quote tweet from earlier, within the context of love and relationship, we allow the outcomes and seeming failures of a first bad date, a first bad interaction, or a first bad relationship build strongholds in our minds and lives that keep us from giving and receiving love, robbing us of possibly great relationships.

It’s easy to recognize the successes of people and what they did right, at the same time neglecting their scars and seasons of momentary failure they had to overcome. We fail to understand that their epic is a culmination of their successes and seeming “failure” — the highs and lows made them who they are that we now admire them.

Regret

At one point or the other in our lives, we have had to and will need to deal with and manage the rewards and repercussions that are a result of our decisions and indecisions (sometimes a good mix of both).

Within my consciousness, I define “regret” as living in the present yet being overly worried about events of the past which hinders you from looking to the future.

We have all found ourselves in this position. No one, not a single human can brag nor boast that they have never been in a position of regret.

We’ve all heard stories of men and women whose decisions and/or indecisions gave rise to regret and remorse. Either us or a someone close to us have had regrets for investing (or not investing) in a particular financial instrument. Again, either us or someone close to us have had regrets for getting into (or getting out) of a relationship. The scenarios are endlessly endless (smirks).

The thing about regrets is that they never allow you to truly live and enjoy your life. Regret, riding shotgun with failure (or at least a seeming sense of failure), and they can work together against you, causing you to believe that a bad day is equal to a bad life.

Regrets have a subtle yet powerfully effective way of preventing you from truly moving on.

You were unexpectedly laid off from your job after five or more years contributing to the growth of the company. This is months, possibly years after the sudden disappointment. You should put yourself out there and apply again to vacant roles but the ghosts of the past hover on your shoulders and you allow them to prevent you from truly letting go of the hurt and pain of being laid off.

Your love relationship with him/her ended in the most terrible of ways, leaving you pained and scarred. Now, it’s time to heal, move on and be optimistic about the future and work towards your next relationship but regrets, in form of decisions (and indecisions) from the past still haunt you to this very day and it has prevented you from forgiving yourself and forgiving your ex-partner and you haven’t truly let go and moved on.

Remember, I told you that this piece is about love and is also not about love (giggling).

Putting It All Together

Being hurt, heartbroken and disappointed sucks… It really does. But do you know what sucks more, you not healing, you not letting go and you not moving on.

If you thought being hurt, heartbroken and disappointed sucked more, brace for a rude shock.

Yes, I’m human and I know that putting yourself out there again after multiple episodes (maybe even seasons, prequels and sequels) of hurt, disappointment and heartbreaks can be difficult, but I’d ask you (and me) a simple question…

How long do you want to continue to hold on to the negatives of the past, depriving you of enjoying the present and inevitably prevent you from looking forward to the future?

As I conclude this contemplation of mine, I ask myself a couple of questions,

“What if I never stepped out?”

“What if I never applied for that job?”

“What if I never moved on from the myriad of rejection emails?”

“What if I never healed and moved on from terrible situations and outcomes?”

“What if I never asked her to be my girlfriend?”

“What if…”

The time is 0336 hours. In two hours or less, I’d go out for my regular morning jog. I must confess, I feel a whole lot lighter after penning (more like typing) this down and out.

I’d leave you with this…

Just because you took a risk (calculated or not), and it yielded a negative outcome is not enough a reason to allow regrets fester in your life and hinder you from the great human you are destined to be and greatness you are destined to achieve your life.

Regardless of how bad it ended; you are a lesson wiser.

With that consciousness, pick yourself back up and dust yourself and take the next risk (decision) with your newly found wisdom.

Cheers to you, your growth and becoming!

Introduction

Hey there! Long time, no talk…

You’re welcome back to my blog and we’d continue with the “Build with Flutter” series. If you haven’t read my previous post on where I talked extensively about getting started in cross-platform development using Flutter, you should check it out here. You can read it during your coffee break when you’re at work ;)

In this article, I would give you a detailed step-by-step guide on how to set up your local Flutter development environment. I’d cover the plugins and extensions you’d need in Android Studio and VS Code respectively (yes, they are important requirements you’d need to install on your local machine). I would also take you through configuring PATH for Flutter SDK as well as installing JDK (Java Development Kit) and configuring its PATH. What’s more, I would also teach you about “whitespaces” (or the “no spaces” rule, as I like to call it that).

Finally, I would show you how to verify if each piece of software from above was installed properly.

This is going to be quite the process and a very long read, so grab a beverage and let’s get started.

Quick Note/Disclaimer

This article assumes you’re on Windows but the installation process on Mac and Linux is relatively similar (I’m currently on Windows 10 Pro).

Prerequisites

This article assumes that you already have Git installed on your Windows machine, if not, download it here. Also, check out this video on how to install Git and get familiar with its commands on a Windows machine.

So, enough talk… Let’s dive right in!!!

First, you’d need to download Android Studio. At the time of writing, the available version is the latest, which is Android Studio Electric Eel | 2022.1.1 Patch 2 for Windows. So, expect to see a newer version when you're reading this article weeks, months (or even years later).

Next, download Visual Studio Code (popularly called VS Code). Depending on what machine you’re on be it Windows, Linux or Mac, download the one that is specified for your local machine (your computer).

Finally, download JDK by Oracle. At the time of writing this, JDK 20 has already been released but this article uses JDK 19.0.2 as that’s what I have installed on my local machine.

Scroll down and download either of these for your Windows 10 Pro 64-bit system.

Installing & configuring JDK and JAVA_HOME

This is where the fun begins, so put on your caps and fasten your seat-belts as we begin to install the necessary tools & software, starting with JDK… To begin, navigate to the folder where your downloads are located and then double-click the JDK installation file to run it. It should be named something like “ jdk_XX_OS-Name_Processor-Type_bin”

When it runs, you would be greeted by the screen above. Go ahead and click “Next”. On doing so, you would see the screen below. This is where you would be able to customize your JDK installation. Go ahead and click “Change”

By clicking “Change” from above, you would be able to customize your JDK installation. Ensure that the directory for the JDK does not have any “whitespaces”. Notice how mine is set up from the picture below. I would explain what “whitespaces” are shortly.

The installation process should take a few minutes, depending on your system specs. At some point, Windows would request User Access Control. Just simply allow it by clicking “Yes”. Shortly afterwards, you should see the screen below. Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed JDK. Your JDK PATH directory should be similar to “ C:\Users\Dexter\java\jdk19.02” and You can click on “Close” now.

To set the “ JAVA_HOME” variable, search “PATH” from Windows Search and click on the first option above named “ Edit the system environment variables” like below.

You would then see this screen below. Click on “Environment Variables” at the bottom right corner.

On clicking “Environment Variables”, you would then see this screen below.

Configuring PATH on Windows can be a little tricky and you could alter a lot for bad if you don’t know what you’re doing, so pay close attention to the next steps as they are extremely crucial.

Under the “System variables” section from the image above, click on “New”.

Just like in the picture above, input “JAVA_HOME” in the “Variable name” field. For the “Variable value” field, insert the directory of your Java installation. Mine is pointing to “C:\Users\Dexter\java\jdk19.02” because that’s where my Java installation is housed. When you’re done, click on “OK” and yours should look nearly similar to mine, like below…

There you go! You have successfully installed Java and JDK, as well as configured PATH on your local Windows machine.

Next up, let’s install and configure Android Studio.

Installing & configuring Android Studio

Next, we would install Android Studio… By now you’ve downloaded Android Studio and if not, pause right here and go download it… Take your time, I’d be waiting for you😉.

Now that you’ve downloaded it, allow me to walk through the installation process.

You see the way I’ve setup the directory C:\Users\Dexter\Android\AndroidStudio where Android Studio would be installed, and you've noticed that there are no spaces (also known as whitespaces) in between the characters and words. This is intentionally so when we would configure PATH and use our command-line(terminal) when running Flutter commands like flutter run, flutter doctor, flutter pub get and flutter upgrade etc. More on that later.

Please, don’t mind the checkbox saying something about “Uninstalling the previous version”. That is displayed because I already have Android Studio fully installed and configured on my local machine.

The installation process should take 30 minutes or less, depending on your internet speed and system specs. The process would take you through setting up Android Studio for the first time and it would install the latest SDKs, libraries & platform tools.

You’d get to a point in the installation process where you would be required to install Android SDKs to a certain directory on your local machine. Do you remember out “no spaces” rule from earlier? It also applies here when installing Android SDK because of PATH.

When the installation is done, you would be greeted by this screen below.

But there’s still work to be done. Click on the “More Actions” button from the shot above and then click on “SDK Manager”, which would then display this screen below.

From the shot above, the PATH for your own Android SDK installation would most likely not be the same as mine C:\Users\Dexter\Android\android-sdk, and that's totally fine, but ensure that you obey the "no spaces" rule mentioned earlier. When at the screen above, you are to check the boxes of a couple of options under the "SDK Platforms" tab as these are a must-have, like I did above. Don't click "Apply" or "OK" just yet. Next, click on the "SDK Tools" tab and select a couple of options like I did in the screen below.

NOTE I prefer to use a physical device (my Android device) as my emulator when developing for mobile, as opposed to setting up and running a virtual device. That’s why I didn’t check the “Android Emulator” option in the screen above.

Now, go ahead an click “Apply”.

You would then see a modal box asking you to confirm the packages you want installed, like in the shot above. Click on “OK”.

Next, you would be greeted by the “License Agreement” window. Select “Accept” and click “Next”.

Just like in the shot below, you should wait until the setup process is done. If your internet or power goes out during this process, you would have to start this step all over.

When everything is done and completed, just like in the shot below, go ahead and click on “Finish”.

And with that, you’ve successfully installed Android SDK tools, packages & platforms on your local machine. But we’re not done yet. From the main screen, click on “Plugins” in the left pane and you should be greeted with this screen below, where you can see the “Plugins” menu.

In this menu, you can search for plugins to download in the “Marketplace” tab at the top, while the “Installed” tab has every plugin you’ve already installed. Under the “Marketplace” tab, search for the “Flutter”, “Dart” and “Gradle” plugins. They are all free to install and use. When you search for and install them, you would have to restart Android Studio to enable the installed plugins. You can do that by simply clicking on “Restart IDE” when it appears against any of the plugins you’ve installed.

NOTE — You don’t have to restart Android Studio after every plugin you’ve installed. Instead, install all the necessary plugins before restarting Android Studio.

Installing & configuring VS Code

VS Code, the last software development tool we would install. Earlier on, you should have already downloaded VS Code. Go ahead and run the VS Code installation executable file and you should be greeted by the screen below.

From above, select the “I accept the agreement” option and then click on “Next”.

Next up, you would see this screen with a couple of installation options. Just like in the shot below, check all options as it would enable you to be able to customize how you want VS Code to be installed on your local machine. Then, click on “Next”.

You should see the screen below that gives a summary of the options you selected previously. Then, click on “Install”.

On clicking “Install”, the installer would start its magic, like in the screen below. Allow the installer to finish up the process automatically and don’t tamper with it.

When it is done, you would see the screen telling you that VS Code Setup is done. You can leave the “Launch Visual Studio Code” option checked and then click “Finish”.

Finally, you would see this screen below of your VS Code running. Yours won’t look like mine because I’ve already customized mine to my taste, but you’d definitely see the “Welcome” page in VS Code.

Installing & configuring the Flutter SDK

Hey, you’ve made it this far, and that’s really commendable. Now, it’s time to install Flutter SDK. Go ahead and download the latest version from the Flutter’s official website. At the moment of writing this, flutter_windows_3.7.9-stable is the latest.

When it’s downloaded, extract it and place the extracted folder named “flutter” in a directory (or PATH) that follows our “no spaces” rule from above. Mine looks like this C:\Users\Dexter\flutter

Next, fire up a command-line shell and run the command
flutter --version and this should print out the Flutter version installed on your local machine.

Next, you would run flutter doctor for the first time. You would have a screen similar to below.

Give it some time to work its magic and when it’s done, you should see a screen similar to below.

Don’t panic just yet, if you have issues with “Android SDK Licenses”.

Simply run the command flutter doctor --android-licenses from within the same command-line shell window and accept all the Android SDK licenses.

Now, let’s verify a couple of things.

Verify your installation

Now, it’s time to configure PATH variables and verify our installation.

First off, Git… Fire up a command-line shell window and run the following command git --version and you should have a result similar to mine in the picture below, where it prints out the Git version.

Next, you’re going to run a couple of Flutter commands. First, we would check our Flutter version by firing up a command-line shell and run the command flutter --version. You should have a result remotely similar to mine.

From that same command-line shell window, you would run the command flutter doctor. This command would display some useful information such as the OS of your local machine, Android SDK etc like below.

NOTE Don’t worry about the 2 warnings you see with regards Chrome and Visual Studio. I don’t have Chrome installed because I prefer Microsoft Edge. As for Visual Studio, we would install it and the necessary components in an article when we want to develop desktop apps for Windows using Flutter

Conclusion

This is where I draw the curtains on this piece. In my next article, I would take you through creating and running your first Flutter application as well as a comparison between emulators (virtual emulators and physical devices) to view and interact with your app in real-time. See you next time

P.S.

You may have noticed that I changed the directory of my JDK installation from “C:\Users\Dexter\java\bin” to “C:\Users\Dexter\java\jdk19.02”. I was having issues setting up “JAVA_HOME” with the former directory, hence the change to a new directory. Also, if you have any questions or run into any roadblock, I’d be in the comments section of this article and I’d be glad to help out!

P.P.S.

While writing and preparing this article, I was listening to the phenomenal and legendary composer, Steve Jablonsky

Originally published at https://dev.to on April 7, 2023.

Introduction

A strong open-source framework for building powerful, platform-independent mobile apps. This is Flutter. This indicates that it enables programmers to quickly and easily construct mobile apps that are visually appealing for both the Android and iOS platforms using a single codebase. In this article, we’ll offer you a quick overview of what Flutter is, its background and development, as well as some of its key features. At the end of this article, you will know the basics of Flutter and its active communities and forums.

What is Flutter?

Developed by Google, Flutter is an open-source UI toolkit to help developers create stunning and quick mobile, web, and desktop applications. With Flutter, programmers can produce high-performance apps that operate natively on Android and iOS devices, the web, and desktop computers, all from a single codebase.

By design, the Dart programming language is used by Flutter, which also comes with a wealth of customizable widgets and features that make it simple to design aesthetically pleasing and responsive user interfaces.

History and Evolution

Google made its initial Flutter announcement in 2017 during the Dart Development Conference. The framework was initially created as an experimental project within Google, but because of its performance, cross-platform compatibility, and ease of use, it quickly became well-liked among developers.

Flutter’s initial stable release was made in December 2018, and since then, it has received several upgrades and enhancements. With the introduction of Flutter 1.2 in 2019, new features and improvements were made, including support for web development and enhanced tooling.

Flutter 1.17, which was launched in 2020, aimed to increase the framework’s performance and stability. Also, it added additional capabilities including the ability to run Flutter apps on macOS and enhanced the hot reload capability.

A new design language dubbed Flutter “Hummingbird” that enables developers to create online applications with the same codebase as mobile apps were introduced with the release of Flutter 2.0 in March 2021, along with support for desktop and web applications, improved performance, and other changes.

Today, Flutter has a large and active community of developers and contributors who continue to work on improving the framework and creating new plugins and packages to extend its capabilities. With its rapid evolution and growing popularity, Flutter is quickly becoming a preferred choice for building cross-platform applications.

Key Features and Functionalities

Some key Flutter features and functionalities include:

• Cross-platform development: Flutter lets developers design a single codebase that can operate natively on several platforms such as Android, iOS, web, and desktop,
• Quick development and hot reload: Flutter’s hot reload functionality allows developers to view the changes they make to the code in real-time, without having to restart the app. This expedites and improves the development process,
• Beautiful UIs: Flutter comes with a wealth of customizable widgets and tools that make it simple to design user interfaces that are both aesthetically pleasing and responsive,
• Access to native features: Flutter provides access to native features such as camera, geolocation, and sensors, making it easy to create apps with rich functionality,
• Fast performance: Flutter’s architecture is designed for high performance, resulting in smooth animations and fast rendering,
• Built-in testing and debugging tools: Flutter comes with built-in tools for testing and debugging, making it easy to catch and fix issues during the development process, and
• Open-source and growing community: Flutter is an open-source framework with a growing community of developers who contribute to the development of the framework and create third-party plugins and packages that make it easier to integrate with other technologies.

In the end, Flutter is a popular go-to option for developers who are looking to easily build and design cross-platform apps since it offers a flexible and powerful framework for creating cutting-edge and entertaining applications that work flawlessly on numerous platforms.

Where To Get Flutter Packages & Libraries

At the moment, packages for Dart & Flutter is the go-to solution for packages to integrate into your app when developing with Dart (Flutter).

Forums & Community Support

A thriving developer community supports the growth of the Flutter framework and produces third-party plugins and packages that facilitate its integration with other technologies. Due to its extensive developer and user base, Flutter has a wide range of communities and forums where you can always go to get help, and I use the platforms when I get stuck. Some of these include:

• The Official Flutter Developer Community,
• Flutter Community on DEV, and
• Flutter Subreddit.

Whether you are a novice or a seasoned developer, Flutter offers a flexible and potent framework for creating cutting-edge and captivating applications that work flawlessly across several platforms.

Conclusion

For developers looking to create stunning and powerful mobile apps with a single codebase for both the Android and iOS platforms, Flutter is a great option. In this article, I gave you an overview of Flutter, talked about Flutter’s history and rapid evolutionary pace, key features of Flutter, as well as forums and online communities where you can always get help. We hope that this introduction to Flutter motivates you to learn more and create incredible mobile applications.

Up Next

In my next post, I will take you through setting up a development environment on your local machine (I’m on Windows and it has a similar process for Mac users) as well as creating your first Flutter application, so keep an eye out for that post.

P.S.

This is a series for everything Flutter, so keep an eye on this space (it costs $0.00 to follow me) for future post as I’m going to be building apps from scratch using Flutter😉🙃

Growth has had a very interesting curve and trajectory… There’s been ups and downs (a lot of downs), made new friends (I think) and made a lot of fresh enemies (because where’s the fun in life if you don’t make enemies 🙃…)

Going Forward…

Before I get lost in my rantings, I’ve made some progress in my software development/UI/UX Design career and couple that with some intermediate knowledge in blockchain development and AI/ML…

Did I mention that I’ve started writing technical articles (after 4 years of procrastination)?!

Daniel, please and please… Don’t relent, don’t stop… You’ve come this far for a reason… There’s still plenty of ground to cover and a lot you still don’t know

An Informal Conclusion…

Soon, I’d get you (yes, you) up to speed with an itty bitty insight into the progress made thus far… 2023 was a really great experience!!!

Ever heard of Web2.0 and Web3.0? Those terms sound very familiar, right? Obviously, duhhh…

So, instead of doing some fancy introduction, I’d just highlight major features, striking similarities and unique differences between the worlds of Web2.0 and Web3.0… So, let’s jump right in!

Web2.0 is an old man that has been around for decades, having experienced and is still experiencing phenomenal changes on all fronts across the cyberspace. Web3.0 on the other hand is technically the new kid on the block — although he’s been around for over a decade now — and it will be safe to say that he is the offspring of Web3.0.

It is important to note that Web2.0 and Web3.0 are highly advanced and very technical iterations and mods of the original Web1.0, which has its origins in the early 1990s, along with the advent of the W3 Consortium (W3C).

Web1.0 wasn’t around for too long before Web2.0 came along. Web2.0 has been around for a long while and is still around, alongside Web3.0 and they are working hand-in-hand to usher in the next technological revolution in human history.

At the moment, Web2.0 represents the current state of the internet, basically everything we see and interact with on the web, while Web3.0 refers to the next phase and industrial revolution.

Social networks, internet connectivity and technological innovations on all frontiers has helped with the growth of Web2.0, while Machine Learning, decentralization, increased anonymity Artificial Intelligence and many other “new tech” are the features of the Web3.0 landscape.

At the time of writing this, I’m currently participating in Blockgames, a blockchain development program put together by the great folks at Nestcoin and Zuri Team.

I have some experience in Golang, Solidity, and Python, just to name a few programming languages that are big in the world of blockchain development.

Thank you for reading this and that’s my 2 cents, maybe it was more.

To stay at top of your game… A constant wake-up call to keep pushing and grinding. In about 8 weeks, my life will get better and sweeter — if you choose to make the most of it — and you’ll be glad that you made this decision.

This is my second attempt at the prestigious HNG Internship. It is a tech-based intensive training program that runs for about 8–10 weeks. My first experience was HNG 7.0 and I met many great individuals and personalities. online. It was a blast. Unfortunately, I got booted out on my way into Stage 5. Learned many great lessons and got access to many valuable resources and files.

Now, I’m back… Better and stronger for HNG 8.0 and I’m prepared to grow, learn and build. This is my goal for joining this internship and I’m determined to finish the entire course of the program and earn the prestigious title, “HNG Finalist”…

My current development stack is Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Flutter. My go-to design software is Figma.

Linked below are video resources that will help you get started in coding or designing.

The first is a Flutter beginner tutorial by Traversy Media (Flutter is used to build cross-platform mobile applications, iOS and Android).

The second is Git. Every programmer should be familiar with Git and the fundamentals Git commands. The video is 4 years old but still very much valuable.

The third and final video is for Figma. Figma is a great and phenomenal design, collaboration and ideation software.

Boys and girls, that is it for this blog post… See ya in 8 weeks time — just kidding.

Thanks for stopping by

UI/UX Design…

Sounds familiar right? Who hasn’t heard of UI/UX Design in 2020? Everyone right… Well, maybe not the guys in Antarctica (just kidding).

Hi there! My name is Daniel and this post aims to cover my UI/UX journey so far and what I’ve learned in the last 8 months.

So, what exactly is UI/UX?

Based on my experience and exposure to the UI/UX universe within the last 8–12 months, UI/UX is all about user flows, immersive user experience, elegant & attractive user interfaces, presentation of web & app screens… And even more like typography, iconography, design hierarchy, color combination, wireframing, planning, analysis, assessment and the list goes on.

Ready? Grab a drink and let’s dive right in…

Iconography

Allow me to guess what you’re thinking… “What the heck is even iconography?” Hehe… We’ve all been in that position when we hear a new word for the first time so let me help you attempt to break it down…

“Iconography is the identification, study, analysis, interpretation, combination, description and/or usage of images, illustrations, fonts, icons and visual representation in general.”

That might be a lot to take in… And yes, that’s my own definition😎. Iconography is quite broad and wide when broken down into its various fields. It covers a wide area of representation and depiction(visually).

As earlier mentioned, images, illustrations, icons, fonts and other forms of visual interactive representation are all under iconography, which in itself, is one of the branches of UI/UX Design.

Iconography doesn’t just involve using these forms of visual interaction but also how to, when to and when not to use them. I hope that makes sense…

I would bring this post to an end right here but we’re just getting started. In my next post, I will talk more about iconography and dive into other areas.

See you soon!