[dart-misc] The future of Dart Code (VS Code extension)...

[Danny Tuppeny]

Hi all,

I'm the owner of Dart Code, the Dart plugin for VS Code
<https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DanTup.dart-code>.
I've been struggling to find time/motivation to work much on it lately and
I'm not sure that's going to change anytime soon. There are a bunch of
things that Dart Code really needs (like web/Dartium/DDC support) to be a
great Dart editor that have been on the list for a long time but I've never
managed to get round to.

I had a couple of reasons for starting Dart Code (to make it easier for me
to write Dart (I didn't like the other IDEs) and to see if I could land a
job somewhere using it daily!) but between Dart Code taking what little
time I do have to spend on "dart related" coding outside work and
relocation no longer currently being an option, neither are happening.

I'm going to continue plucking away at bugs and keeping things working with
new versions of Code/Dart SDK when I can, but it's unlikely any new big
features will be added by me. I think it would suck a little for users of
Dart Code to not get those features so if there's someone willing (and
suitable) to take over it might be for the better.

If you're interested, please let me know. I'm not going to just throw it
over the fence, it has to go to a good home - for one I still have projects
I want to use Dart for in the future!

DanTup

['Devon Carew' via Dart Misc]

Hey Danny, I want to say that as a sometime contributor to Dart-Code, it
really is a great tool, and an excellent example of a community contributed
piece of the Dart ecosystem.

It seems like Dart-Code is pretty mature at this point, in the sense that
what's there works well. Have you thought about trying to structure the
project a bit more so that it's less dependent on one person doing all the
work? You could look around for other examples of community supported
efforts and borrow some ideas from them. Offhand, you might want to refocus
some portion of the readme <https://github.com/Dart-Code/Dart-Code> on
different ways people could contribute, including some non-coding tasks
like helping to triage and respond to issues.

Post by Danny Tuppeny
Hi all,
I'm the owner of Dart Code, the Dart plugin for VS Code
<https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DanTup.dart-code>.
I've been struggling to find time/motivation to work much on it lately and
I'm not sure that's going to change anytime soon. There are a bunch of
things that Dart Code really needs (like web/Dartium/DDC support) to be a
great Dart editor that have been on the list for a long time but I've never
managed to get round to.
I had a couple of reasons for starting Dart Code (to make it easier for me
to write Dart (I didn't like the other IDEs) and to see if I could land a
job somewhere using it daily!) but between Dart Code taking what little
time I do have to spend on "dart related" coding outside work and
relocation no longer currently being an option, neither are happening.
I'm going to continue plucking away at bugs and keeping things working
with new versions of Code/Dart SDK when I can, but it's unlikely any new
big features will be added by me. I think it would suck a little for users
of Dart Code to not get those features so if there's someone willing (and
suitable) to take over it might be for the better.
If you're interested, please let me know. I'm not going to just throw it
over the fence, it has to go to a good home - for one I still have projects
I want to use Dart for in the future!
DanTup
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Devon Carew
Software Engineer
Google, Inc.

[Danny Tuppeny]

Hey Devon!

I want to say that as a sometime contributor to Dart-Code, it really is a

great tool, and an excellent example of a community contributed piece of
the Dart ecosystem.

Thanks; it's turned out quite well (better than DartVS!), in part thanks to
your contributions (and help from the analyzer team) :-)

It seems like Dart-Code is pretty mature at this point, in the sense that
what's there works well. Have you thought about trying to structure the
project a bit more so that it's less dependent on one person doing all the
work?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but I'm certainly open to suggestions.

Offhand, you might want to refocus some portion of the readme
<https://github.com/Dart-Code/Dart-Code> on different ways people could
contribute, including some non-coding tasks like helping to triage and
respond to issues.

The readme is a bit conflicted - it's used on the VS Code marketplace where
I think it's best job is to sell the extension (to users), but on the
homepage of GH it makes a little less sense. I tried to get Code
<https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/10485> to allow a different
file so these be more targeted but it was rejected. To be honest the
smaller things (non-coding and triage) aren't the problems; I'm happy to do
these (and I don't think they're exciting things that people tend to want
to contribute!).

The contributing file definitely could do with updating/replacing with
something useful, but I'm not sure how much difference it'd make to
contributions - of the ones I've had, everyone seemed to pick it up very
easily. I'm not sure the difficulty of contributing is the biggest cause
for few contributions, I think relatively small dev population and the fact
it's written in TypeScript are bigger issues

Dart Code really needs some sizeable devs (like good web support) to remain
a competitive option for Dart coding. I feel I'm letting DC users down a
little not being able to find the time/motivation to work on these. Coupled
with that the fact I'm not actually using it, I don't really know how good
the experience it's delivering is - sometimes simple things are wonky and I
don't notice! If someone that's writing Dart frequently is interested, they
might be able to do a better job than I've been which could be best for
Dart Code/its users. That said, based on the lack of responses to this
message, it doesn't look like there's any interest!

I'm still a big fan of Dart and if the opportunity to use Dart more comes
up in the future then that might help. In the meantime I'll continue doing
"the small things" in Dart Code as I'm able to :-)

[Kyle Bradshaw]

I'd just like to chip in and say that Dart Code means a lot to me, and is
far better than the other options I've found (including IDEA + Dart +
Flutter), because it just works.

I admittedly haven't looked over the source, as I'm still new to the VS
Code system (previously worked primarily in Python with PyCharm), but if
contribution is what it takes to keep the project alive, I'd be happy to
pitch in where I can.

If I can give one piece of advice, hold off on losing interest for just one
more week. With Google I/O just around the corner, and a big push for
Flutter incoming, I'm sure you'll find a larger user base to appeal to for
help.

[Danny Tuppeny]

Hi Kyle!

I'd just like to chip in and say that Dart Code means a lot to me, and is

Post by Kyle Bradshaw
far better than the other options I've found (including IDEA + Dart +
Flutter), because it just works.

Glad to hear :) It's hard to know how well something like this is working
for people when you tend to only hear from them when something is
broken/wrong/missing! Since I don't currently use it myself I really
experience with it for anything other than some contrived toy CLI apps I
test with!

Post by Kyle Bradshaw
I admittedly haven't looked over the source, as I'm still new to the VS
Code system (previously worked primarily in Python with PyCharm), but if
contribution is what it takes to keep the project alive, I'd be happy to
pitch in where I can.

Thanks (and for the contributions already)! I need to tidy up the
contributing.md file with some info on how it all works but you can
probably figure a lot out just from extension.ts
<https://github.com/Dart-Code/Dart-Code/blob/master/src/extension.ts> -
that's the entry point and pretty much everything is wired up from there in
the activate method (though the debugger is a bit more complicated since it
gets launched in a separate process). The VS Code API docs
<https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/extensionAPI/vscode-api> are pretty
decent.


If I can give one piece of advice, hold off on losing interest for just one

Post by Kyle Bradshaw
more week. With Google I/O just around the corner, and a big push for
Flutter incoming, I'm sure you'll find a larger user base to appeal to for
help.

I'm definitely not just giving up; Dart Code has been a great little
project to work on and I would like to continue. I just really want to a)
set expectations that I may not do large devs and b) if someone out there
can do a better job of taking it forwards, make the offer - I'd love Dart
Code to be a real option for serious Dart coding whether it's me or someone
else that gets it there.

Doesn't seem like there's a queue of people wanting to take it over just
yet though, so I think it's going to continue as it was! I'll continue to
do what I can and merge/review PRs and we'll see how it goes. The next few
months are going to be rather busy so I might be quieter than usual for a
while.

Thanks!

Danny

['Bob Nystrom' via Dart Misc]

Post by Danny Tuppeny
Hi all,
I'm the owner of Dart Code, the Dart plugin for VS Code
<https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DanTup.dart-code>.
I've been struggling to find time/motivation to work much on it lately and
I'm not sure that's going to change anytime soon.

I feel your pain. I've had a number of open source projects over the years
where my stamina didn't keep up with interest from other users. It's
surprisingly stressful and something that doesn't get talked about that
much in open source.

Post by Danny Tuppeny
There are a bunch of things that Dart Code really needs (like
web/Dartium/DDC support) to be a great Dart editor that have been on the
list for a long time but I've never managed to get round to.
I had a couple of reasons for starting Dart Code (to make it easier for me
to write Dart (I didn't like the other IDEs) and to see if I could land a
job somewhere using it daily!) but between Dart Code taking what little
time I do have to spend on "dart related" coding outside work and
relocation no longer currently being an option, neither are happening.
I'm going to continue plucking away at bugs and keeping things working
with new versions of Code/Dart SDK when I can, but it's unlikely any new
big features will be added by me. I think it would suck a little for users
of Dart Code to not get those features so if there's someone willing (and
suitable) to take over it might be for the better.

The work you've already done has been tremendously helpful and you
shouldn't feel bad if you aren't going to keep doing it. Putting out an
open source project shouldn't obligate anyone to take care of it until the
heat death of the universe.

Cheers and thanks for building this!

– bob

[Danny Tuppeny]

Post by 'Bob Nystrom' via Dart Misc
I feel your pain. I've had a number of open source projects over the years
where my stamina didn't keep up with interest from other users. It's
surprisingly stressful and something that doesn't get talked about that
much in open source.
The work you've already done has been tremendously helpful and you
shouldn't feel bad if you aren't going to keep doing it. Putting out an
open source project shouldn't obligate anyone to take care of it until the
heat death of the universe.

Thanks; makes me feel a little better about it! By setting expectations
maybe I won't feel so bad when I go a couple of weekends without doing
anything on it. Time just seems to disappear lately (having kids probably
the biggest contributor to that!).

[Kyle Bradshaw]

I'd just like to chip in and say that Dart Code means a lot to me, and is
far better than the other options I've found (including IDEA + Dart +
Flutter), because it just works.

I admittedly haven't looked over the source, as I'm still new to the VS
Code system (previously worked primarily in Python with PyCharm), but if
contribution is what it takes to keep the project alive, I'd be happy to
pitch in where I can.

If I can give one piece of advice, hold off on giving up for just one more
week. With Google I/O just around the corner, and a big push for Flutter
incoming (and who knows how many other Dart projects), I'm sure you'll find
a larger user base to appeal to for help.