gaplessPlayback property Null safety

bool gaplessPlayback
final

Whether to continue showing the old image (true), or briefly show nothing (false), when the image provider changes. The default value is false.

Design discussion

Why is the default value of gaplessPlayback false?

Having the default value of gaplessPlayback be false helps prevent situations where stale or misleading information might be presented. Consider the following case:

We have constructed a 'Person' widget that displays an avatar Image of the currently loaded person along with their name. We could request for a new person to be loaded into the widget at any time. Suppose we have a person currently loaded and the widget loads a new person. What happens if the Image fails to load?

  • Option A (gaplessPlayback = false): The new person's name is coupled with a blank image.

  • Option B (gaplessPlayback = true): The widget displays the avatar of the previous person and the name of the newly loaded person.

This is why the default value is false. Most of the time, when you change the image provider you're not just changing the image, you're removing the old widget and adding a new one and not expecting them to have any relationship. With gaplessPlayback on you might accidentally break this expectation and re-use the old widget.

Implementation

final bool gaplessPlayback;