I think a few points are worth emphasizing. Dart produces JavaScript that is closer to being correct https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5424680

Dart can produce JavaScript that is faster http://news.dartlang.org/2013/03/why-dart2js-produces-faster...

The JavaScript output of Dart2js works across all modern browsers (IE9 and above, among others.) No browser hacks required.

Having said that, I wish they would stop working on advancing Dart and ship a 1.0 version. It's been 1.5 years since it was announced. Make the advancements in the 1.1 or 2.0 and give the tool developers a solid target to optimize for in 1.0. Let us not have to sell clients on a beta development system, even though that's what I'm doing and it's working, despite some panic when Dart developers break things with breaking changes (which is often.)

Assuming this is not April 1 con'd.

Dart is really cool. Awesome, in fact. I want this project to do well.

But there's just no way I am going to base my business on it when not even Google uses it for their own stuff. It's just way too early.

This makes sense. Every time I side-peek at JS, I get terrified by the huge amount of libraries that one is supposed to be used to just get it running. It must be a liberating feeling to be able to just use one language with one standard library, for all your stuff. The "batteries included" philosophy worked well for Python.

The title is inaccurate, they weren't using JavaScript before, they were using CoffeeScript.

Seems that the story is they are moving towards a more opinionated language/framework. That it is Dart isn't the story here; they don't even mention the Dart VM as a benefit for the switch. It just as easily could be ClojureScript, which provides all of the same benefits.

Why does so many startups feel the need to brag about the fact that they're switching to <hot new technology>? To me it just comes off as an attempt to convince themselves it's a great idea.

How about coming back in a year and telling us how it turned out instead? Actual case-studies and analysis are interesting, fashion statements are not.

It seems very risky to base your core business on a language that's only been around for two years. Sometimes web development seems to be more volatile than the fashion industry.

Why go through so much pain to avoid JavaScript, coffeescript now Dart? JavaScript is not the problem, it's how terrible our community is at sharing/creating modular things. Classes and shitty syntax wont help you there

This sure sounds like April 1 joke, but, I get that developer(s) wanted something even more innovative then brunch and coffeescript. Like arkitaip said, it is a very risky move.

BTW this is not an April fools joke :)

I like your post since it's a refreshing take on today's language and framework decisions. Usually people go for Coffee, Node, Go, Clojure or ClojureScript nowadays (I mixed FE and BE tech deliberately).

What I am interested in: Why did you go for Dart? What was the trigger? When I look at Google Trends Dart seems to have a very hard time compared to other current technologies regarding search popularity.

And what's your backend based on? Could I go for Dart with Node?

While I think dart is a nice language, I do not think JavaScript is bad enough to justify switching to a completely different language.

I worked on some big js projects, and together with a good module-system and jslint with strictmode on it works out all quite well.

I think OOP is nice but you can do without much of it by focussing on composition instead of inheritance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_over_inheritance

Dart has a big focus on OOS and looks a lot like "JavaScript for Java Programmers". Which is not a bad thing.

Interesting post! I'm wondering:

1. How do you test your Dart code?

2. How do you integrate Dart with your existing Javascript?

3. Do you use Dart Web UI?

How well does Dart work with node.js? Should I even consider Dart if using node.js?

I would be too afraid to base a business on a language that's only two years old. It's not even a guarantee that the language will remain supported by Google in the long term, given their periodic house-cleaning.

I hope Google gets (even more) serious with Dart. Web App Development with JavaScript is a joke. Just remember the recent callbacks vs promise debate. It's like JS devs know nothing about software engineering.

Many libraries, including Underscore, default to the native browser methods when they're available. It's not really much of an issue deciding which map() to use.

April fools?