Google adds Dart support to App Engine

Google has added support for its programming language Dart to its App Engine. This allows developers to run their applications on Google’s servers. With Dart, Google has been working on a javascript alternative for several years now.

So developers can now run their Dart server applications on their App Engine instances. The Dart installation is managed by Google, which says it will work on better support in the near future. For now, Dart for App Engine is still in beta.

Google unveiled Dart in 2011. The language is open source and aimed at web applications and according to Google it is an easy-to-learn alternative to the widely used javascript. Also, Dart should be highly scalable and should not only run smoothly on mobile phone browsers, but also perform well on servers.

Despite Google’s efforts, Dart’s adoption is relatively limited. For example, most browsers do not support the language; only Google still does that Dartium, a Chromium fork. Competitor Microsoft even came up with its own javascript dialect: TypeScript.