Google announced that they were making Kotlin an officially supported language for Android development.
*Kotlin is named after Kotlil
The new Android language is completely “interoperable” with Java, this means you can use Java frameworks and mix commands from both in your code, with no limitations. Kotlin has been used by developers since some years ago but it was until this year that it was officially presented as an Android support language. Kotlin is expressive, concise, extensible, powerful and a joy to read and write”. It´s also the first language to be added to Android.
Kotlin first appeared as a new language for Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in 2011. Kotlin is easy to understand, which made it easier for developers to build apps. It complies with both JavaScript and machine code, while focusing on its primary environment JVM. We compared the features of Java and Kotlin, and found that Kotlin is more beneficial than Java. Some of the reasons why you should prefer Kotlin over Java are as below.
Are any differences using Kotlin or Java?
The new Android language helps to write safer, because with less work it´s possible to write a more reliable code. Of course, for the UX this translates into apps with less bugs and crashes.Although Java and Kotlin are both languages for Android development, there are several comparisons between both programming languages. However, Kotlin is a clean slate in many ways and it adds a lot of great features for app creators.One interesting characteristic of this Google language acquisition is that Kotlin will continue to be developed and supported by JetBrains. Actually, both companies are currently trying to set up a nonprofit Kotlin foundation to look after the language.
When we look back at our Java experience and how we use Kotlin today, we can conclude the following:
- The code is more concise, it’s just simply less code to write and maintain.
- The code is safer, since it makes you think about (im)mutability, nullability etc. while writing code.
- The above also makes development faster. It’s just easier to do complex things.
- The IDE support is great (we’re using Android Studio).
- The community is big and growing. Existing libraries are supporting or migrating to Kotlin, the internet is packed with blogs, videos, presentations and, of course, StackOverflow questions/answers.
- Kotlin is production ready. We’re doing it and also big companies like Square, Pinterest, Trello and Google.