Google unveils Dart developer platform

Google has released a preview version of its Dart programming platform, which the company hopes will help drive development of web applications.

The company has also released a set of libraries and compiler tools.

Google said the Dart platform is an open-source project that can run as either a virtual machine application or on top of a JavaScript engine. The company intends to aim Dart primarily at web developers looking for a simple and flexible platform for developing applications.

"We believe Dart will be great for writing large web applications," wrote Google engineer Lars Bak in a blog post.

"Dart targets a wide range of development scenarios: from a one-person project without much structure to a large-scale project needing formal types in the code to state programmer intent."

The unveiling of Dart comes as platform vendors are looking to improve their programming tools for web applications. Earlier this month Oracle touted its JavaFX web platform at the JavaOne conference.

Adobe, meanwhile, recently released version 3 of its AIR web application platform, while Microsoft continues to develop its Silverlight web application platform.

Google said it will continue to offer software updates and news on the Dart platform at its dartlang.org site.