Dart, Google's Controversial Web Language, Turns 1.0

Dart is done. Well, not completely done - anything not actually cancelled at Google is a constant work in progress - but the company on Thursday announced version 1.0 of its controversial Web programming language. Dart is designed to improve on JavaScript when it comes to programmer efficiency and software performance for Web sites and Web apps. The 1.0 release means Dart is now ready for real-world Web sites, not just for testing, said Lars Bak, leader of the project, in a blog post. And even though lots of roadblocks mean it's not possible to use Dart directly on the Web, Google offers indirect mechanisms that could make it useful while Google tries to convince other browser makers Dart is worthwhile.

Google debuted Dart two years ago, and it announced version 1.0 at the Devoxx conference in Belgium. It consists of a new programming language that Google hopes will be easy for JavaScript coders to learn but faster for them to use, a software developer kit (SDK) to help people write programs, the Dartium version of the Chrome browser that can directly run Dart programs, and the dart2js utility that can convert Dart programs into JavaScript for browsers that lack support.