2. Development environment setup

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Setting up your development environment is a crucial step to start developing apps with Flutter and Dart. This detailed guide will help you set up the development environment from zero to advanced.

Step 1: Flutter SDK Installation

The first step in setting up the development environment is to install the Flutter SDK. The Flutter SDK is a set of tools that includes the Dart SDK, a virtual machine, a package manager, and a variety of command-line tools for developing, testing, and debugging Flutter apps.

You can download the Flutter SDK from the official Flutter website. Make sure you download the latest version of the SDK. Once downloaded, extract the zip file to an appropriate directory on your system.

After that, you need to add Flutter to your system PATH. PATH is an environment variable that your system uses to locate the executables needed to run commands. Adding Flutter to the PATH allows you to run the 'flutter' command in any terminal.

Step 2: Install the Dart SDK

The Dart SDK is included in the Flutter SDK, but if you only want to develop with Dart, you can install the Dart SDK separately. You can download the Dart SDK from the official Dart website. Just like the Flutter SDK, you need to add the Dart SDK to your system's PATH.

Step 3: Code editor setup

The next step is to configure the code editor. Flutter supports a variety of code editors, but the most popular ones are Visual Studio Code and Android Studio. Both editors have excellent support for Flutter and Dart, including syntax highlighting, code formatting, refactoring, and more.

To configure Visual Studio Code for Flutter, you need to install the Flutter extension. This extension adds support for the Flutter language to Visual Studio Code. It also includes a complete set of Flutter code snippets that can speed up your development.

To configure Android Studio for Flutter, you need to install the Flutter plugin. This plugin adds Flutter language support to Android Studio. It also includes a complete set of Flutter code snippets that can speed up your development.

Step 4: Emulator Setup

The last step is to configure the emulator. An emulator allows you to test your Flutter apps on a variety of devices and platforms without the need for a physical device. Flutter supports a variety of emulators including Android Emulator, iOS Simulator and Chrome.

To set up the Android Emulator, you need to install Android Studio. Android Studio includes the Android Emulator by default, so you don't need to install it separately. After installing Android Studio, you can create and manage your emulators through the AVD Manager.

To set up the iOS Simulator, you need a Mac with Xcode installed. Xcode includes iOS Simulator by default, so you don't need to install it separately. After installing Xcode, you can launch the iOS Simulator through Xcode's "Open Developer Tool" menu.

To configure Chrome, you simply need to install Chrome on your system. After installing Chrome, you can run your Flutter apps in Chrome using the 'flutter run -d chrome' command.

After following these steps, you will have a fully configured Flutter development environment ready to start developing applications from zero to advanced.

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32.1. Development Environment Setup: Installing Flutter and Dart