README.md

go-flutter - A package that brings Flutter to the desktop

Purpose

Flutter allows you to build beautiful native apps on iOS and Android from a single codebase.

This project brings Flutter to the desktop through the power of Go and GLFW.

The flutter engine itself doesn't know how to deal with desktop platforms (eg handling mouse/keyboard input). Instead, it exposes an abstraction layer for whatever platform to implement. This project implements the Flutter's Embedding API using a single code base that runs on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. For rendering, GLFW fits the job because it provides the right abstractions over the OpenGL's Buffer/Mouse/Keyboard for each platform.

The choice of Golang comes from the fact that it has the same tooling on every platform. Plus Golang is a great language because it keeps everything simple and readable, which makes it easy to build cross-platform plugins.

How to install

📦 🐧 Linux

From binaries

Check out the Release page for prebuilt versions.

From source

Go read first: go-gl/glfw

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/go-flutter-desktop/go-flutter.git
cd go-flutter

# Build the flutter simpleDemo project
cd example/simpleDemo/
cd flutter_project/demo/
flutter build bundle
cd ../..

# Download the share library, the one corresponding to your flutter version.
go run engineDownloader.go

# REQUIRED before every `go build`. The CGO compiler need to know where to look for the share library
export CGO_LDFLAGS="-L${PWD}"
# The share library must stay next to the generated binary.

# Get the libraries
go get -u -v github.com/go-flutter-desktop/go-flutter

# Build the example project
go build main.go

# `go run main.go` is not working ATM.

📦 🏁 Windows

From binaries

Check out the Release page for prebuilt versions.

From source

Go read first: go-gl/glfw

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/go-flutter-desktop/go-flutter.git
cd go-flutter

# Build the flutter simpleDemo project
cd example/simpleDemo/
cd flutter_project/demo/
flutter build bundle
cd ../..

# Download the share library, the one corresponding to your flutter version.
go run engineDownloader.go

# REQUIRED before every `go build`. The CGO compiler need to know where to look for the share library
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-L%cd%
# The share library must stay next to the generated binary.
# If you ran into a MinGW ld error, checkout: https://github.com/go-flutter-desktop/go-flutter/issues/34

# Get the libraries
go get -u -v github.com/go-flutter-desktop/go-flutter

# Build the example project
go build main.go

# `go run main.go` is not working ATM.

📦 🍎 MacOS

From binaries

Check out the Release page for prebuilt versions.

From source

Go read first: go-gl/glfw

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/go-flutter-desktop/go-flutter.git
cd go-flutter

# Build the flutter simpleDemo project
cd example/simpleDemo/
cd flutter_project/demo/
flutter build bundle
cd ../..

# Download the share library, the one corresponding to your flutter version.
go run engineDownloader.go

# REQUIRED before every `go build`. The CGO compiler need to know where to look for the share library
export CGO_LDFLAGS="-F${PWD} -Wl,-rpath,@executable_path"
# The share library must stay next to the generated binary.

# Get the libraries
go get -u -v github.com/go-flutter-desktop/go-flutter

# Build the example project
go build main.go

# `go run main.go` is not working ATM.

Flutter Demos Projects

The examples are available here.

Version compatibility

Flutter version

Flutter is a relatively new project. It's framework and engine are updated often. This project tries to stay compatible with the beta channel of flutter.

Go version

Updating Go is simple, and Go seldomly has backwards incompatible changes. This project remains compatible with the latest Go stable release.

GLFW version

This project uses go-gl/glfw for GLFW v3.2.

Support

• Linux 🐧
• Windows 🏁
• MacOS 🍎
• Importable go library
• Plugins Medium article on how the Flutter's messaging works
  • JSON MethodChannel
  • StandardMethodCodec, ...
• System plugins Platform channels used by the Flutter system
  • Window Title
  • Text input
  • Clipboard (through shortcuts and UI)
  • Keyboard shortcuts
    • ctrl-c ctrl-v ctrl-x ctrl-a
    • Home End shift-Home shift-End
    • Left ctrl-Left ctrl-shift-Left
    • Right ctrl-Right ctrl-shift-Right
    • Backspace ctrl-Backspace Delete
    • ctrl-Delete
  • Key events