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Introduction

caution

This chapter may be challenging to read and is only for those who want to know the internals! If you find it hard, maybe:

  • Learn some Flutter internals (such as the Widget, Element, RenderObject, Layer tree and so on)
  • Ask me (for example, in GitHub issue section - I usually reply quickly)
  • If many people are interested, I may write another article as a simplified and shorter version of this chapter

In this chapter, I will discuss how this package is designed and implemented.

The layers​

The package mainly consists of two layers:

  1. Infra layer: The core logic. Only expose a few low-level flexible primitives such as SmoothBuilder to the outside world.
  2. Drop-in layer: Code in this layer utilizes the infra layer to build drop-in replacement solutions, such as SmoothListView. This section also serves as examples when you want to create your own drop-in replacement (e.g. when you want to create SmoothMyFancyGridView).

Chapter structure​

In this chapter, we will firstly see backgrounds and literature review. Then, we will discuss how the infra layer is implemented, starting from the "preempt" idea, and continuing to other ideas such as brake, rasterizer queue, GC, and so on. Lastly, we will also briefly discuss how the drop-in layer is created.