2024 Retrospective: Technologies and Reflections

2024 Reflection and Technologies I Used

2024 was a year where I touched various technologies and learned a tremendous amount. In particular, I was impressed by how convenient Flutter is, and I feel I've grown quite a bit by trying out various new tools and libraries. I've summarized the technologies I worked with this year and the challenges I faced during development, and I hope this will be helpful for anyone looking to learn something new.

I committed more than I thought

1. Developing an Earthquake Information App

Difficulties
What was tough about developing the earthquake information app was using new libraries. Specifically, the part where I fetched data from the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) and displayed it in Flutter was fun. It was interesting to try out libraries I hadn't used before, and it felt good to gradually implement them.

Solution
In the end, I settled on using dio to streamline API communication. dio is like axios and was very convenient. Using it allowed data acquisition to proceed smoothly, and I was able to deliver real-time earthquake information to users, so it was worth the effort.

2. Benefits of go_router

Why it was convenient
I used go_router for navigation management in Flutter, and it was super convenient. It saved me from writing long code with Navigator, and passing parameters was easy. While the traditional Navigator tended to get quite complex, using go_router made the code much cleaner and simplified passing parameters to the destination. This made development significantly easier.

3. Technologies Learned in 2024

Here are the technologies that left a particularly strong impression among those I used in 2024.

Express & MongoDB

Building APIs with Express was quick and smooth, and the compatibility with MongoDB was excellent. Since it's a schema-less database, it's easy to adapt even if you want to change the data structure halfway through. I liked that it could be handled flexibly and modified quickly. However, although I also tried Hono, I still don't like TypeScript very much, so I end up going back to Express.

Rails

As expected, I like Rails because it's intuitive. Data manipulation with ActiveRecord is incredibly easy, and API design proceeded smoothly. Overall, it's simple and allows me to focus on development without worrying about unnecessary details, making development with Rails comfortable. However, for small web apps, it feels a bit too large, so I often rely on Express & MongoDB.

Dart & Flutter

At first, I thought Dart felt a bit "strange," but once I got used to it, it became very easy to write. I used to be uncomfortable with statically typed languages, but Dart has just the right amount of typing so it doesn't feel like a burden. If you know JS, you can transition with almost no discomfort, and building UIs in Flutter with its simple syntax was truly easy. I was quite confused at first, but as I got used to it, it became increasingly comfortable, and the feeling of building UIs using Widgets was very enjoyable.

4. Development Experience Using AI Tools

How I use AI tools and what I learned
In the beginning, I thought I could do anything if I had AI (GPT), but now I feel that's not the case at all. While there are certainly many convenient aspects, relying too much on AI causes quality to drop, and there are many instances where it doesn't work correctly. Ultimately, I've realized that AI is a tool to be used for assistance, and its support is only meaningful when you have your own understanding.

Specific examples of utilization
For example, tasks like creating API endpoints or generating UI templates finish extremely quickly when relying on AI. However, in the end, you must read the code carefully yourself, make corrections, and check for bugs. I realized that when using AI, it's important to keep thinking for yourself while working.

Conclusion

2024 was a year where I was able to work with various technologies and absorb a lot of new knowledge. From the ease of building UIs in Flutter to how simple routing became with go_router, it was a very fulfilling year for me personally. I'll do my best to keep challenging myself with new technologies and grow even more next year! I look forward to another great year!