Flock & Nest : New Flutter Community Projects by Matt Carroll, @SuperDeclarative

Summary

In this talk, Matt Carroll discusses the challenges faced by the Flutter community, particularly the overwhelming demand for support versus the limited size of the Flutter team. He introduces 'flock,' a community-driven initiative aimed at addressing these issues by allowing more developers to contribute to Flutter, thus alleviating the backlog of requests. Carroll emphasizes the importance of community involvement and proposes a structured approach to merging changes, facilitating contributions, and maintaining compatibility with the core Flutter framework. The initiative also aims to create 'Nest,' a resource for developers looking to customize their Flutter experience.

Takeaways

• 😀 Matt Carroll, a former member of the Flutter team, highlights the challenges faced by developers relying on Flutter due to a limited team size.
• 🤝 There's a significant disparity between the number of Flutter developers (estimated at around a million) and the Flutter team (about 50), leading to a challenging support environment.
• 🔄 A new initiative called 'Flock' is proposed as a community-driven fork of Flutter to address labor shortages and expedite feature requests.
• 🛠️ The community's ability to contribute effectively is hindered by a lack of guidance on how to get involved in Flutter's development.
• 📊 The importance of community engagement is emphasized; recruiting more contributors could significantly improve the support ratio for Flutter users.
• ⚖️ Two main challenges are identified: the labor shortage and the balance of value versus risk when adding features to Flutter.
• 📅 The timeline of resolving feature requests can be excessively long, as demonstrated by the protracted debate over adding a spacing property to Flutter's layout widgets.
• 🚀 'Flock' aims to provide a way for the community to implement quick fixes and feature enhancements without waiting for the official Flutter team.
• 💻 Phase one of Flock involves synchronizing with Flutter's master branch to ensure that the fork remains up-to-date with Flutter developments.
• 📚 'Nest' will serve as a resource for companies to fork Flutter for their specific needs, facilitating easier customization and bug fixes.

Q & A

What is the primary challenge facing the Flutter community mentioned in the talk?

The Flutter team has limited resources compared to the large number of users, with about 20,000 users for each team member, making it difficult to manage bugs and feature requests effectively.

What is the purpose of the Flock initiative?

Flock is designed to be a community-driven fork of Flutter that allows contributors to propose and implement changes more quickly, bypassing the delays often associated with the official team.

How will reviewers be selected for the Flock initiative?

Initially, Matt Carroll and Jesse will decide on reviewers, but the group will expand over time as the community grows and proves its capabilities.

What approach will be taken towards testing contributions in Flock?

All contributions will require tests; however, reviewers are expected to assist contributors who may not know how to write tests, facilitating learning and future contributions.

What concerns were raised regarding backward compatibility in Flock?

There is a risk that new features introduced in Flock could conflict with the original Flutter framework, but efforts will be made to minimize this through careful naming and structuring.

What role do the Nest tools play in the Flutter ecosystem?

Nest is intended to provide tools and resources for individuals and companies to easily fork Flutter for their specific needs, including synchronization scripts and comprehensive documentation.

How does Carroll plan to manage the quality of contributions to Flock?

Carroll intends to recruit reviewers who act as facilitators, ensuring that quality standards are upheld while educating contributors about the contribution process.

What did Carroll emphasize about community involvement in the Flock initiative?

Carroll encouraged community members to actively participate in Flock as it develops, emphasizing collaboration and collective growth.

What issue was raised regarding testing requirements for small contributions?

There is a concern that contributors may not want to write tests for minor changes, but the expectation is that no code changes will be merged without accompanying tests.

How does the Flock initiative aim to handle feature additions without causing conflicts?

By placing new features under a Flock namespace and directory, Flock aims to prevent conflicts with existing Flutter components, although some challenges may still arise.