Dart: Mixins vs Static Methods

Question

Is using mixins a better practice than using static methods?

For example:

• we can create a Utils class, put static methods in it and then use them like Utils.print().
• or we can create a UtilsMixin class, access it using "with" keyword and just call print().

How do these two methods compare to each other? Which one is the way to go?

Solution

Mixins vs Static member is like Black vs White. They do the opposite.

Members of a mixin are linked to one specific instance of an object. But static members are common to all objects

If it made sense to implement something like a static function, then it likely means that a mixin is not what you want. It'll just make the object bloated and slower to instantiate.

Comments

[Shahin Mursalov]

Can you tell me a simple case when I would prefer mixins over static methods? and what do you mean by "Members of a mixin are linked to one specific instance of an object. But static members are common to all objects". Can you explain more?

[Jesse Adam]

from what I gather Remi is saying that AFTER you instantiate a class you can add a method to it and then call it and I imagine the method you attach might come from a static method. Obviously the method is going to expect that all the variable names are defined in the class it's being appended to. Good example here: javascript.info/mixins