Functions to move to dart:core from dart:ui

[Hixie]

These are functions and types that we have in dart:ui (Flutter's core library) that really should just be in dart:core:

• [ ] lerpDouble, which should really just be a static method on num: https://master-api.flutter.dev/flutter/dart-ui/lerpDouble.html
• [ ] clampDouble, which should really just be a method on double: https://master-api.flutter.dev/flutter/dart-ui/clampDouble.html
• [x] hashValues and hashList, which should really be in dart:core somewhere: https://master-api.flutter.dev/flutter/dart-ui/hashValues.html
• [ ] VoidCallback, widely used in Flutter code, also defined in dart:html https://master-api.flutter.dev/flutter/dart-ui/VoidCallback.html

[sethladd]

cc @floitschG

[lrhn]

The lerpDouble function could be put on double (or num) as

double interpolate(num a, num b) => a + (b - a) * this.toDouble();

(it should return double, not num).

I'm more concerned about the hash functions. The 373 (* 37 + x)* is a classic, so we can at least say that we are no worse than everybody else, but it's not great. It's quick, though. We have other hash implementations spread around the source code that we could centralize and expose.

[Hixie]

Just to be clear, the algorithms used in the Flutter hash functions today are horrible; we'd love to have better ones if you take these functions over. We're planning on changing the implementations of the ones we use anyway (https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/859). It's the interface we're interested in moving over to core Dart, not the precise implementations.

If lerpDouble made it over that would be great. We currently have lerp functions on many of our classes (Point, Rect, Color, Border, BoxDecoration, etc) but since there's no function on "num" for it, we have to call this function instead when we need to lerp a double. Calling it "interpolate" would be fine, we'd change our functions to match (though note that "lerp" is a pretty widely used term of art).

[kasperpeulen]

I often see people use those hash functions in Dart libraries:

https://github.com/google/quiver-dart/blob/master/lib/src/core/hash.dart

[floitschG]

We discussed the lerp function, and it seems simpler if this stays a helper function. It's a common operation in drawing/3D, but is otherwise not much used. Maybe we can get it through extension methods (no promises).

[Hixie]

An update from 2018:

• https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/27791 covers moving VoidCallback to dart:core also.
• We would still love these four members moved. It would help with code that uses the Foundation library in Flutter but wants to run in non-Flutter environments like servers.
• For hashValues and hashList we still care about only the interface, and are happy with any implementation, so long as it is performant (when called and in terms of giving good hashing behaviour).
• For lerpDouble, having it be double.lerp would still be preferable IMHO but if it's just lerpDouble that's fine too. We now use lerp extensively in our API so would very much prefer that it not be renamed to interpolate.

[matanlurey]

As of 2018, void Function() is the same as VoidCallback :man_shrugging:

[dnfield]

For the hashing functions,see https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/11617

[dnfield]

Should we just mark VoidCallback as deprecated and convert all instances of it to void Function()?

[Hixie]

Why would we do that?

[dnfield]

It would achieve our goal of eliminating a dart:ui dependency where we don't want it, assuming we can live with having a void Function() signature instead of VoidCallback.

[kevmoo]

@lrhn had spent some time thinking about hashCode somewhere in dart: – I think

[dnfield]

@lrhn had spent some time thinking about hashCode somewhere in dart: – I think

@kevmoo that's the issue I linked to above, #11617

[Hixie]

@dnfield I think using VoidCallback has more value than not depending on dart:ui. I agree it would be ideal if dart:core declared VoidCallback, but it looks like that's not on the cards.

[Hixie]

Update from 2023:

• The hash functions are now in dart:core and deprecated in dart:ui, hooray!
• lerpDouble would still be great as double.lerp for consistency with the many, many other static lerp functions in Flutter's framework.
• It would be great if clampDouble could also be moved somehow. That's a version of double.clamp that's much more efficient than double.clamp. Alternatively, double.clamp could be optimized so as to make clampDouble unnecessary. See https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/46879.
• VoidCallback would be great to add to dart:core also. It's in a dart:* library now, dart:html, but we can't depend on that from dart:ui.

[kevmoo]

VoidCallback is trivial to define at the use site. void Function() – right?

[Hixie]

Well it would be typedef VoidCallback = void Function(); since types with spaces and parentheses in them are something we try to avoid but the idea is to just define it once and not worry about having to redeclare it everywhere. That way you can be confident that you're really talking about the same type, it cross-links in API docs, etc. As noted earlier in this bug, using VoidCallback has more value than not depending on dart:ui, but it would be great to have both.

[natebosch]

After discussion I don't think there are any signatures/behaviors that make sense to land in the core libraries. For double.clamp and double.lerp the core library maintainers are aligned on waiting to see whether we are able to land static extension methods as the best solution here. There are questions about whether Flutter authors prefer static extensions over the status quo, but from the Dart core library standpoint we're confident with pushing in that direction.

For VoidCallback we're aligned on messaging a preference for void Function() and don't have plans to add the typedef to the core libraries.