Ekhlass/Flutter_Documentation · Datasets at Hugging Face

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The same is true for Flutter on other native platforms,
such as Windows or macOS.info Note
Flutter 3.10 set Impeller as the default
rendering engine on iOS. It’s in preview
for Android behind a flag.<topic_end>
<topic_start>
From user input to the GPU
The overriding principle that Flutter applies to its rendering pipeline is that
simple is fast. Flutter has a straightforward pipeline for how data flows to
the system, as shown in the following sequencing diagram:Let’s take a look at some of these phases in greater detail.<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Build: from Widget to Element
Consider this code fragment that demonstrates a widget hierarchy:
<code_start>Container(
color: Colors.blue,
child: Row(
children: [
Image.network('https://www.example.com/1.png'),
const Text('A'),
],
),
);<code_end>
When Flutter needs to render this fragment, it calls the build() method, which
returns a subtree of widgets that renders UI based on the current app state.
During this process, the build() method can introduce new widgets, as
necessary, based on its state. As an example, in the preceding code
fragment, Container has color and child properties. From looking at the
source
code
for Container, you can see that if the color is not null, it inserts a
ColoredBox representing the color:Correspondingly, the Image and Text widgets might insert child widgets such
as RawImage and RichText during the build process. The eventual widget
hierarchy may therefore be deeper than what the code represents, as in this
case2:This explains why, when you examine the tree through a debug tool such as the
Flutter inspector, part of the
Dart DevTools, you might see a structure that is considerably deeper than what
is in your original code.During the build phase, Flutter translates the widgets expressed in code into a
corresponding element tree, with one element for every widget. Each element
represents a specific instance of a widget in a given location of the tree
hierarchy. There are two basic types of elements:RenderObjectElements are an intermediary between their widget analog and the
underlying RenderObject, which we’ll come to later.The element for any widget can be referenced through its BuildContext, which
is a handle to the location of a widget in the tree. This is the context in a
function call such as Theme.of(context), and is supplied to the build()
method as a parameter.Because widgets are immutable, including the parent/child relationship between
nodes, any change to the widget tree (such as changing Text('A') to
Text('B') in the preceding example) causes a new set of widget objects to be
returned. But that doesn’t mean the underlying representation must be rebuilt.
The element tree is persistent from frame to frame, and therefore plays a
critical performance role, allowing Flutter to act as if the widget hierarchy is
fully disposable while caching its underlying representation. By only walking
through the widgets that changed, Flutter can rebuild just the parts of the
element tree that require reconfiguration.<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Layout and rendering
It would be a rare application that drew only a single widget. An important part
of any UI framework is therefore the ability to efficiently lay out a hierarchy
of widgets, determining the size and position of each element before they are
rendered on the screen.The base class for every node in the render tree is
RenderObject, which
defines an abstract model for layout and painting. This is extremely general: it
does not commit to a fixed number of dimensions or even a Cartesian coordinate
system (demonstrated by this example of a polar coordinate
system). Each
RenderObject knows its parent, but knows little about its children other than
how to visit them and their constraints. This provides RenderObject with
sufficient abstraction to be able to handle a variety of use cases.During the build phase, Flutter creates or updates an object that inherits from
RenderObject for each RenderObjectElement in the element tree.
RenderObjects are primitives:
RenderParagraph
renders text,
RenderImage renders
an image, and
RenderTransform
applies a transformation before painting its child.Most Flutter widgets are rendered by an object that inherits from the
RenderBox subclass, which represents a RenderObject of fixed size in a 2D
Cartesian space. RenderBox provides the basis of a box constraint model,
establishing a minimum and maximum width and height for each widget to be
rendered.To perform layout, Flutter walks the render tree in a depth-first traversal and
passes down size constraints from parent to child. In determining its size,
the child must respect the constraints given to it by its parent. Children
respond by passing up a size to their parent object within the constraints
the parent established.At the end of this single walk through the tree, every object has a defined size
within its parent’s constraints and is ready to be painted by calling the
paint()
method.The box constraint model is very powerful as a way to layout objects in O(n)
time:This model works even when a child object needs to know how much space it has
available to decide how it will render its content. By using a
LayoutBuilder widget,
the child object can examine the passed-down constraints and use those to
determine how it will use them, for example:
<code_start>Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return LayoutBuilder(
builder: (context, constraints) {
if (constraints.maxWidth < 600) {
return const OneColumnLayout();
} else {
return const TwoColumnLayout();
}
},
);

The same is true for Flutter on other native platforms,

such as Windows or macOS.info Note

Flutter 3.10 set Impeller as the default

rendering engine on iOS. It’s in preview

for Android behind a flag.<topic_end>

<topic_start>

From user input to the GPU

The overriding principle that Flutter applies to its rendering pipeline is that

simple is fast. Flutter has a straightforward pipeline for how data flows to

the system, as shown in the following sequencing diagram:Let’s take a look at some of these phases in greater detail.<topic_end>

<topic_start>

Build: from Widget to Element

Consider this code fragment that demonstrates a widget hierarchy:

<code_start>Container(

color: Colors.blue,

child: Row(

children: [

Image.network('https://www.example.com/1.png'),

const Text('A'),

],

),

);<code_end>

When Flutter needs to render this fragment, it calls the build() method, which

returns a subtree of widgets that renders UI based on the current app state.

During this process, the build() method can introduce new widgets, as

necessary, based on its state. As an example, in the preceding code

fragment, Container has color and child properties. From looking at the

source

code

for Container, you can see that if the color is not null, it inserts a

ColoredBox representing the color:Correspondingly, the Image and Text widgets might insert child widgets such

as RawImage and RichText during the build process. The eventual widget

hierarchy may therefore be deeper than what the code represents, as in this

case2:This explains why, when you examine the tree through a debug tool such as the

Flutter inspector, part of the

Dart DevTools, you might see a structure that is considerably deeper than what

is in your original code.During the build phase, Flutter translates the widgets expressed in code into a

corresponding element tree, with one element for every widget. Each element

represents a specific instance of a widget in a given location of the tree

hierarchy. There are two basic types of elements:RenderObjectElements are an intermediary between their widget analog and the

underlying RenderObject, which we’ll come to later.The element for any widget can be referenced through its BuildContext, which

is a handle to the location of a widget in the tree. This is the context in a

function call such as Theme.of(context), and is supplied to the build()

method as a parameter.Because widgets are immutable, including the parent/child relationship between

nodes, any change to the widget tree (such as changing Text('A') to

Text('B') in the preceding example) causes a new set of widget objects to be

returned. But that doesn’t mean the underlying representation must be rebuilt.

The element tree is persistent from frame to frame, and therefore plays a

critical performance role, allowing Flutter to act as if the widget hierarchy is

fully disposable while caching its underlying representation. By only walking

through the widgets that changed, Flutter can rebuild just the parts of the

element tree that require reconfiguration.<topic_end>

<topic_start>

Layout and rendering

It would be a rare application that drew only a single widget. An important part

of any UI framework is therefore the ability to efficiently lay out a hierarchy

of widgets, determining the size and position of each element before they are

rendered on the screen.The base class for every node in the render tree is

RenderObject, which

defines an abstract model for layout and painting. This is extremely general: it

does not commit to a fixed number of dimensions or even a Cartesian coordinate

system (demonstrated by this example of a polar coordinate

system). Each

RenderObject knows its parent, but knows little about its children other than

how to visit them and their constraints. This provides RenderObject with

sufficient abstraction to be able to handle a variety of use cases.During the build phase, Flutter creates or updates an object that inherits from

RenderObject for each RenderObjectElement in the element tree.

RenderObjects are primitives:

RenderParagraph

renders text,

RenderImage renders

an image, and

RenderTransform

applies a transformation before painting its child.Most Flutter widgets are rendered by an object that inherits from the

RenderBox subclass, which represents a RenderObject of fixed size in a 2D

Cartesian space. RenderBox provides the basis of a box constraint model,

establishing a minimum and maximum width and height for each widget to be

rendered.To perform layout, Flutter walks the render tree in a depth-first traversal and

passes down size constraints from parent to child. In determining its size,

the child must respect the constraints given to it by its parent. Children

respond by passing up a size to their parent object within the constraints

the parent established.At the end of this single walk through the tree, every object has a defined size

within its parent’s constraints and is ready to be painted by calling the

paint()

method.The box constraint model is very powerful as a way to layout objects in O(n)

time:This model works even when a child object needs to know how much space it has

available to decide how it will render its content. By using a

LayoutBuilder widget,

the child object can examine the passed-down constraints and use those to

determine how it will use them, for example:

<code_start>Widget build(BuildContext context) {

return LayoutBuilder(

builder: (context, constraints) {

if (constraints.maxWidth < 600) {

return const OneColumnLayout();

} else {

return const TwoColumnLayout();

}

},

);