> Thing is, Objective-C was the official language on iOS, and yes they did release C++ support, it is called Objective-C++ and exists since NeXTSTEP days.
I am well aware, I have used Objective-C++ myself, but it's irrelevant. No, you cannot write iOS apps completely in C++. you still have to use Objective-C or Swift when dealing with UI components.
Further, Objective-C is not "just" a programming language, in this case. All of Apple's native frameworks are very strongly influenced by it. They allow you to do things that wouldn't be possible in other languages.
Obviously, it's possible to translate that experience to something else (see Swift), but it's an entirely different experience. Worse, in my opinion.
The same is true of Flutter and Dart. A lot of Flutter's architectural decisions are tied closely to the strengths (and weaknesses) of Dart. It would not make sense to switch to a different implementation language at this point.
Because Dart is also used for compiled Flutter apps, which are meant to compete with native apps written in Java, Kotlin, Objective-C, and Swift. This gives us the obvious advantage of not turning people's phones into space heaters, which would be the case if Flutter apps used an interpreted language.
> I guess if Google want Fuchsia / Flutter to really take off, they will have to port Flutter to Javascript.
just like that time when iOS was suddenly hot, but there were no apps for it, because programmers hated Objective-C and weren't willing to learn it. So Apple released a new SDK and toolchain that allowed them to write apps in C++ instead.
oh wait.
Okay, all snark aside. Come on, guys. Isn't the fact that high tech is always new and innovative considered to be a good thing? So why is there always so much pressure to insist that every new thing has to be exactly like all the old things?
Learning Dart is not difficult. I did it myself, without even trying. I just pretended I already knew it, by following examples I found online. After a couple of weeks, my pretend-knowing turned into real-knowing.
I am well aware, I have used Objective-C++ myself, but it's irrelevant. No, you cannot write iOS apps completely in C++. you still have to use Objective-C or Swift when dealing with UI components.
Further, Objective-C is not "just" a programming language, in this case. All of Apple's native frameworks are very strongly influenced by it. They allow you to do things that wouldn't be possible in other languages.
Obviously, it's possible to translate that experience to something else (see Swift), but it's an entirely different experience. Worse, in my opinion.
The same is true of Flutter and Dart. A lot of Flutter's architectural decisions are tied closely to the strengths (and weaknesses) of Dart. It would not make sense to switch to a different implementation language at this point.