Category: Android

flutter toolchain cleans up its act

whbeebe

Back in early December I ranted a bit against the full release of Flutter (see “the very definition of insanity – trying to make google flutter work“). I left flutter alone for about a month, and then two days ago this month I upgraded flutter with the following welcome results:

Williams-MBP:~ wbeebe$ flutter upgradeUpgrading Flutter from /Users/wbeebe/Develop/flutter...From https://github.com/flutter/flutter   7a88fbc5f..985ccb6d1  dev   -> origin/dev * [new branch]  logo-tos  -> origin/logo-tos   faae8bde7..517f8dc27  master-> origin/master * [new branch]  mit-mit-patch-1   -> origin/mit-mit-patch-1 * [new branch]  revert-23424-dragfix2 -> origin/revert-23424-dragfix2 * [new branch]  revert-26090-switch_to_dev_finder -> origin/revert-26090-switch_to_dev_finder * [new tag] v1.1.5-> v1.1.5 * [new tag] v1.1.8-> v1.1.8 * [new tag] v1.1.6-> v1.1.6 * [new tag] v1.1.7-> v1.1.7Already up to date.Upgrading engine...Already up-to-date.Flutter 1.0.0 • channel stable • https://github.com/flutter/flutter.gitFramework • revision 5391447fae (6 weeks ago) • 2018-11-29 19:41:26 -0800Engine • revision 7375a0f414Tools • Dart 2.1.0 (build 2.1.0-dev.9.4 f9ebf21297)Running flutter doctor...Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, v1.0.0, on Mac OS X 10.14.1 18B75, locale en-US)[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK 28.0.3)[✓] iOS toolchain - develop for iOS devices (Xcode 10.1)[✓] Android Studio (version 3.2)[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2018.3.2)[!] Connected device! No devices available! Doctor found issues in 1 category.

You’ll note my biggest gripe is fixed now, the inability to apparently determine if the iOS (sub) toolchain was actually sane. Another minor but welcome fix was for the Android toolchain. The Android toolchain incorporates the Android SDK. In the past flutter doctor would complain that the Android licensing was inconsistent/incorrect. The workaround before this drop was to go and re-run sdkmanager (tools/bin/sdkmanager) and then re-run ‘flutter doctor’. That seemed to fix the Android toolchain issues. I’m not worried about the connected device because right now there is no connected device, and so this error message is correct. Again, these are welcome changes.

This morning I upgraded flutter again and got the following:

Williams-MBP:~ wbeebe$ flutter upgradeUpgrading Flutter from /Users/wbeebe/Develop/flutter...From https://github.com/flutter/flutter   985ccb6d1..1407091bf  dev-> origin/dev + af09490e1...40c4925a5 gallery-> origin/gallery  (forced update)   517f8dc27..6c7fb8805  master -> origin/master * [new tag] v1.1.9 -> v1.1.9Already up to date.Upgrading engine...Already up-to-date.Flutter 1.0.0 • channel stable • https://github.com/flutter/flutter.gitFramework • revision 5391447fae (6 weeks ago) • 2018-11-29 19:41:26 -0800Engine • revision 7375a0f414Tools • Dart 2.1.0 (build 2.1.0-dev.9.4 f9ebf21297)Running flutter doctor...Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, v1.0.0, on Mac OS X 10.14.1 18B75, locale en-US)[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK 28.0.3)[✓] iOS toolchain - develop for iOS devices (Xcode 10.1)[✓] Android Studio (version 3.2)[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2018.3.2)[!] VS Code (version 1.30.2)[!] Connected device! No devices available! Doctor found issues in 2 categories.

Now the complete toolset is tracking Visual Studio (VS) Code, the editor/minimal IDE. Thinking I needed to update VS Code, I checked my version of VS Code, and guess what?Yep, I’m running with the latest production release. A quick check showed that all the installed plugins were up to date as well. Then I re-ran ‘flutter doctor -v’ and got the verbose output. This is part of what I got on that run.

[!] VS Code (version 1.30.2)• VS Code at /Users/wbeebe/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents• Flutter extension not installed; install from  https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Dart-Code.flutter

Sure enough I was missing the Flutter extension. Don’t ask me how, but re-installing the extension and then running ‘flutter doctor’ again produced the following cleaner output:

Williams-MBP:bin wbeebe$ flutter doctorDoctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, v1.0.0, on Mac OS X 10.14.1 18B75, locale en-US)[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK 28.0.3)[✓] iOS toolchain - develop for iOS devices (Xcode 10.1)[✓] Android Studio (version 3.2)[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2018.3.2)[✓] VS Code (version 1.30.2)[!] Connected device! No devices available! Doctor found issues in 1 category.

Which is what I would have expected. I’m glad that they’re checking VS Code and the Flutter extension, but if there is a problem with the Flutter extension (or any other extension that Flutter depends upon) then they should surface that directly, rather than the current cryptic “You’ve got a problem” error message. Like the connected device message directly below it.

I’m going back into using Flutter for app development instead of using it as an excuse to run tutorials. I’ve got at least two small projects in mind to use this tool on.

the very definition of insanity – trying to make google flutter work

whbeebe

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

I’m giving up on Flutter. After finally getting everything installed, configured, and mastering the basic tutorials (see here), I managed to get several demo apps running on the iPhone X simulator. And then, with the release of Flutter 0.11.13, it all went to hell in a handbasket. Flutter doctor is now producing the following:

Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):[✓] Flutter (Channel beta, v0.11.13, on Mac OS X 10.14.1 18B75, locale en-US)[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK 27.0.3)[!] iOS toolchain - develop for iOS devices (Xcode 10.1)✗ Verify that all connected devices have been paired with this computer in Xcode.  If all devices have been paired, libimobiledevice and ideviceinstaller may require updating.  To update with Brew, run:brew updatebrew uninstall --ignore-dependencies libimobiledevicebrew uninstall --ignore-dependencies usbmuxdbrew install --HEAD usbmuxdbrew unlink usbmuxdbrew link usbmuxdbrew install --HEAD libimobiledevicebrew install ideviceinstaller[✓] Android Studio (version 3.2)[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2018.3)[✓] Connected device (3 available)

I followed the brew directions not once, but twice. I then went and deleted the entire flutter folder, downloaded the current zip file, unzipped it, and ran Flutter doctor again. Same issue.

I have neither the time nor the patience to go trolling through fora on the Internet trying to find the magic solution. I’ve got better things to do with my time. So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m deleting Flutter again, and when it’s finally officially released, maybe I’ll try it again. But until then I’ll stick with XCode on my MBP.

Update 4 December

Google announced the release of Flutter 1.0 today. Downloaded it, unzipped it, same issues as with the beta. Deleted it again.