Add advanced Flutter UI examples without Material/Cupertino widgets

[fenilli]

I think flutter as rigth now have way to much focus on material design, as an application that has the idea of " Full control over all the pixels ", being 'tied' to use the same pixels as any other application is counter intuitive.

Not that is impossible to make a full custom application without material nor cupertino, but its hard because of wrong reasons, there is little to none about creating a widget from scratch, in both official docs and user forums.

Use case

If you're trying to make a custom design without material or cupertino, you're out of luck for good information out there, mostly of those use material as a starting point, instead of the flutter foundations.

Proposal

I would like to propose a more friendly approach inside the docs on how to actually use flutter instead of flutter material.

[pedromassangocode]

I would like to propose a more friendly approach inside the docs on how to actually use flutter instead of flutter material.

Can you please elaborate more on this proposal? Isn't creating apps with material style with Flutter the same as using Flutter?

I think the docs provide the basics in how to get started with Flutter. Currently there is a lot of online content about how to get the most of Flutter.

If you have a more specific proposal, feel free to share about it and contribute to improve the documentation

[fenilli]

Can you please elaborate more on this proposal? Isn't creating apps with material style with Flutter the same as using Flutter?

Kinda yes, but at the same time no, if I use flutter I would expect for example I could see examples inside the documentation about making my own 'Container' using the flutter lib classes like foundation, rendering, widgets, Instead of being tied to material or cupertino styles and "rules".

Even when looking for "creating a widget" inside flutter docs the example is basically creating a wrapper that uses material design, instead of actually making a widget that is style agnostic.

I think the docs provide the basics in how to get started with Flutter. Currently there is a lot of online content about how to get the most of Flutter.

Yes, I'm not actually saying that the docs are bad or they don't provide enough, as for fast development and projects its really good to just "plug and play" a style and that is it, the same goes for online content, they are amazing for this kinda of project.

But what if I don't want to use material nor cupertino, the docs and online content are a bit lacking, your only way to find out on this is reading the source code and the api docs.

So one proposal would be more content on how flutter classes work and how to use them instead of flutter/material or flutter/cupertino, a bit more on hands on job for agnostic widget developers.

[fenilli]

After reading hours of it, and many videos about how to customize the visuals using the material package, it hit me that material is more of a layout theme instead of actually a theme, so using a container does not necessarly make it look like a material design container with predefined colors that you can change by theme.

Meaning that I think some of material widgets could be passed to the widgets, instead of staying inside material, like the Buttons, material should be a theme instead of a base for this kinda of simple widget.

[pedromassangocode]

I this is unrelated to the actual issue!

[pedromassangocode]

the same goes for online content, they are amazing for this kinda of project.

I'm not exactly sure about that.

your only way to find out on this is reading the source code and the api docs.

I think that is one of the power of open source: the ability to see how the internal API was made and learn from it. I think that adding more advanced content into the docs may confuse newcomers as it would be too complex.

It still a bit unclear what you are proposing. I would suggest to be more specific on what you want to be added and where as general issues are usually confused as they focus on many different areas to fix it. Thank you

[fenilli]

I think that is one of the power of open source: the ability to see how the internal API was made and learn from it. I think that adding more advanced content into the docs may confuse newcomers as it would be too complex.

I agree.

It still a bit unclear what you are proposing. I would suggest to be more specific on what you want to be added and where as general issues are usually confused as they focus on many different areas to fix it.

I would then suggest for simplicity sake, adding inside samples & tutorials a tab called advanced, where users can learn how to do more advanced topics, like "creating your own MaterialApp".

Why tho? because that would help package developers to create different app styles to the community, for example a TailwindApp that uses the tailwind utility first approach.

[pedromassangocode]

where users can learn how to do more advanced topics, like "creating your own MaterialApp".

I'm still not sure if this is something that must be in the docs. MaterialApp is just a widget and if you look at the code you can definitely build your own.

[fenilli]

I'm still not sure if this is something that must be in the docs. MaterialApp is just a widget and if you look at the code you can definitely build your own.

That was just an example, the idea is just a bit more of advanced topics, so people can make code that adheres to the flutter's code conventions, and standards when creating something new.