The design of the Dart programming language is heavily based on syntax, features, and performance characteristics from past object-oriented systems. This intentional choice has resulted in a productive and yet simple to learn programming language with clear semantics. It can even be implemented efficiently on a wide variety of platforms. We will in this talk discuss several important design decisions, including: constructor semantics, the optional type system, and support for incremental execution and fast application startup. Finally, we will evaluate where the language should be improved.

Lars Bak is a software engineer at Google and a veteran virtual machinist. He co-designed the Dart programming language with Kasper Lund and has spend the last five years making making Dart an effective programming platform. His passion for designing and implementing object-oriented programming languages started in 1986 when implementing a runtime system for Beta. Since then, Lars has left marks on several software systems: Self, Strongtalk, JVM HotSpot, JVM CLDC HI, OOVM Smalltalk, V8, and lately Dart. Lars graduated from Aarhus University in 1988 with a MS degree in computer science.