Problem Statement
What are Isolates in Dart and why are they important?
Explanation
Isolates are Dart's solution for parallel execution, each having its own memory heap and event loop, running truly in parallel without shared memory. Unlike threads in other languages, isolates don't share memory preventing race conditions and making concurrent code safer. Isolates communicate by passing messages through ports, copying data rather than sharing references.
Use isolates for CPU-intensive operations like large JSON parsing, image processing, cryptography, or complex computations that would otherwise block the UI thread causing jank. The compute() function provides easy isolate usage for one-off computations, spawning an isolate, executing your function there, and returning the result automatically without managing isolate lifecycle.
Isolates have overhead from copying data and spawning, so only use them for expensive operations where benefits outweigh costs. For simple async operations like network requests or file I/O, regular async/await suffices since these operations don't block the event loop. Understanding when to use isolates versus async/await is crucial for Flutter app performance.
