Dart vs Golang

There is an ongoing debate in the corporate sector as well as in the Internet sphere. Is Dart better than Golang or vice versa? Although both programming languages have certain similarities, they are quite different from each other. Thus, in this blog, we will try to settle whether developers should stick to Golang development or make a change to Dart.

So, let us dive in. We will be considering various parameters to determine the differences between Dart and Golang.

1.   Model

• Golang is an open-source programming language that was developed by Google to handle the scalability issues they were facing. The statically typed language has syntactical resemblance with C and it is used mainly for systems programming, back-end development, cloud computing and web applications.
• Dart is another open-source, scalable programming language developed at Google. Although a statically typed language, it has several characteristics of dynamically typed languages. Dart is used both in the client and server side and developers find it handy for designing simple apps.

2.   Performance

• Golang will always be faster than Dart, courtesy the CSP-style concurrency and parallelism. If we were to go by throughput measurement, then we would notice a huge difference between Golang and Dart.

• From the graph above, we can see that even single core Go performance is better than the best Dart servers. However, there is a small difference between the dynamic and static core cases. The Dart core gives out at 5000-6000 requests per second. On the contrary, the Go servers clock at 13,000 requests per second.    
• The Dart can overtake Go only on one condition, if we let Conduit Dart make use of all the CPUs on the 8 cores. But, this difference also fades away once we make Golang use all the 8 cores. Then, we see that requests per second goes upto 60,000-62,000, which is quite staggering. This is showcased by the graph below.

3.   Interpreter vs Compiler

• Golang is a swift compiler-based language, making it simple to compile any project for any intended system, including mac and linux. The mostly used Golang compiler implementations are gc, gccgo, and gollvm. However, the gollvm is rarely used.
• If you check online, you will find Dart to be an interpreted compiler language. When you develop an app, it can run in the JIT (just-in-time) mode. And once you are done creating the app, you will find Dart VM to run in AOT (ahead-of-time) mode. The Dart VM compiles the source code into native binaries.

4.   How Can You Pass a Map?

• A map represents a key/value pair collection, and each key is unique. In Golang, you can pass a map by reference. So, when we pass a map to a particular function or assign a reference to a new variable, the reference to the map is usually copied.
• Dart does not consist of a pass by reference, where you can easily pass a variable in the form of an argument. The value types are primitive data types (int, bool, double, etc. are certain data types that are used in Dart). These values are small; thus, it can be stored in the stack.

5.   Constructors and Deconstructors

• Golang has no provision for classes. Thus, there is no leeway for default constructors or deconstructors. Since it is syntactically similar to C, Golang has memory safety, garbage collection, structural typing and heavy reliance on package usage. The ‘constructor’ functions are termed as NewWhatever() or New() in Go. 
• On the contrary, Dart is an object-oriented language. Thus, it has provision for classes, interfaces, etc. And you can have access to Parameter, Named and Default constructors in Dart. And you can also use deconstructors.

6.   Inheritance

• In Golang, there is no concept of Inheritance as the language does not support classes. What usually happens is that ‘inheritance’ occurs through a phenomenon known as struct embedding. We are not allowed to extend structs directly. However, we can rely on composition where the struct is used to create objects.
• Inheritance is one of the most crucial concepts of OOPs programming language and Dart supports it. However, unlike Java, Dart does not have the provision for multiple inheritance. And the child class cannot inherit constructors of the parent class. However, it can inherit methods and functions of the parent class.

7.   Looping Options

• In Golang, there exists no keyword with the help of which you can execute while and do_while loop statements. However, you can create a while loop from the for loop statement. To make the while loop, we mention the condition of the loop. However, we exclude the variable initialization and code that modifies the loop variable.
• Dart has provision for while and do_while loop statements. In the case of do_while loop, it checks for the condition after it executes the block first. The loop goes on with the iteration if the condition returns true. The while loop is used in the case when the number of block executions is unknown.

8.   Threading and Operations

• Golang is superior to Dart when it comes to threading and operations. It is possible to carry out multi-threaded parallelization and concurrency in Golang. And this can be done with the help of channels and goroutines. They work in asynchronous manner, so that developers get to enjoy the full facility of multi-threading and asynchronous programming.
• Dart is single threaded. However, if it has to perform two different operations simultaneously, then it takes the help of Future objects, which behave in the same way as threads. The Future objects along with await and async keywords are used to perform asynchronous tasks. The task is executed on the same thread, which usually waits for another task to be finished.

Hopefully, you have some insight into the differences between Dart and Golang. Also, you can see that there is no reason to switch from one programming language to another if you are already accustomed to it. However, if you prefer OOPs programming concepts, then it is wise if you go for Dart. Otherwise, you can continue with Golang development.

Duncan Barret

My name is Duncan Barret a professional SEO expert having Proven skills of excellent writing demonstrated in a professional portfolio Impeccable grasp of the content creation, including interview trends and expressions. I have ability to work independently with little or no daily supervision with strong interpersonal skills and willingness to communicate with clients, colleagues, and management.