Is saying "build and run" valid for a Flutter app

[suragch]

We learn that we are supposed to say "build and run" in the guides, but for Flutter app with hot reload, building isn't really necessary. Should we make a point of saying something different? Maybe one of these:

• Perform a hot reload to run the app
• Perform a hot restart to run the app
• Perform a full restart to run the app

[brian-kayfitz]

I'm going to be annoying and say - "It depends."

We have the benefit of doing both actually; it's the context that matters. The build and run is the required the first time, since the app isn't running. There is nothing to hot reload or hot restart.

Hot reload is preferable after that, but hot restart has its place too. There are also cases where you do need to do a full stop, build and and run again (working with native code, bringing in new plugins, etc)

So I think we need these three:

• Build and debug (in Android Studio) to start the app
• Perform a hot reload
• Perform a hot restart

[suragch]

Good points. I agree about "it depends".

One comment I have about using the word "debug" is that it might be a little confusing for people who are thinking about debugging as setting breakpoints and stepping through the code. It's been a little while since I've used Android Studio regularly, but I recall a separate button for debugging as opposed to running the app. Most of the time for the tutorials pressing the run button is enough. In this case I still like "build and run".