title: Can you make helper functions in classes without instantiating an object of that class?
body: <p>I have a class which has its functions for an instantiated object, but i am aware of other languages which will have helper functions inside the class which are public without defining an object explicitly.</p>
  
  <p>The DART language website seemed like it didnt really address it.  In a simple case, it could be something like having a Point class, then having a jsondecoder inside of it which may have some use instead of needing to have other libraries included.</p>
  
  <pre><code>class Point {
    int x, y;
    Point(this.x, this.y);
  
    Point fromMap(HashMap&lt;String, int&gt; pt){
      return new Point(pt["x"]||null, pt["y"]||null);
    }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>that way when i need to use the Point class, i could just say:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Point pt = Point.fromMap({});
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I didnt really see any examples as to when I was flipping through classes to make these properly public.</p>