Flutter AOT vs JIT

Question

My understanding is that Flutter is compiled AOT. Can it be compiled as JIT instead of AOT, will it work and what is the switch that would do that?

Thanks!

Percheron

@RubensMelo so in theory I should be able to use dart:mirrors to get reflection on Flutter objects. Or is there some other issue. – Percheron

Sure. You can use it. – Ryan

Answer 1

In development mode, Flutter is compiled just-in-time. That is why we can do hot-reload/restart so fast. In release mode (when you go to publish your app), your code is compiled ahead-of-time, to native code. It is for better performace, minimum size and remove other stuff that are useful in dev mode.

Ryan

Do you mean JIT works in debug mode and AOT works in release and profile mode right? – Mexican

Yes default is debug -> JIT , release & profile -> AOT – Am

Answer 2

As per resource, I got the following points :

1) The Dart code is ahead-of-time (AOT) compiled into a native, ARM library.

2) When launched, the app loads the Flutter library. Any rendering, input or event handling, and so on, are delegated to the compiled Flutter and app code.

Burgas

Answer 3

There is a JIT release mode with restrictions (iOs):

https://github.com/flutter/flutter/wiki/JIT-Release-Modes

So the answer is ~yes

And the build mode is the switch, but you can control it (in one direction).

Am