#Android Development Language: Kotlin

Kotlin


it's indeed a common puzzling question asked by the IT community is to why we need "Kotlin" when the purpose can be served with Java.? Moreover, the immensely popular programming language Java is compatible with almost every platform and predominantly strong enough for  back end programming and support front end too. We would discuss every layer of Kotlin in every prospectus. However, as always we would begin with basic approach to start and answer complex to simple questions with What & Why?


What is Android coding language "Kotlin"?

The easy and short answer to this would be: Kotlin is Statically typed programming language for the JVM, Android and browser. 100% interoperable with Java™ and Android™ (https://kotlinlang.org/)


Why Kotlin?

This aspect hold much importance then above question(What is Kotlin?) as it's almost a short overview of our blog. Okay, so why Kotlin? or Why Kotlin over Java to be fair enough?

Java is bit outdated already since it was launched 23 years back. Moreover, its backward compatible language, which means that every new version has to support the features included in previous one and that basically, becomes harder with every update to include some new features plus old; consequently, the amount of code to write also increase.  Almost every app written in Java struggles with Null-safety/references - infamously called as the "billion dollar bug". So basically, the disadvantages of Java became advantage of Kotlin.


Time & Effort - Kotlin codes are Safter and Concise.

Yes, less code means less time taken(efforts) and bonus to this, less errors. Every class is a function in Kotlin, and vice versa; more to this, same as Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android has Optional types, which help with all the safety checkups.  Below example would validate our point of:  "Less code = Less Time + Easy to understand".

Kotlin vs Java

Less Error hunting and No Semicolons;

With less codes to write definitely means less errors and unlike java coding, where developers must have spare time to hunt for error & catch block. Moreover, there is no Semicolons ( ;) in Kotlin, this may sound like "no big deal" for majority. However, dear readers  writing code is completely different then writing a letter, where we can skip or ignore punctuations sometimes. You land on Bermuda Triangle, if  you miss a semicolon(;) in Java.


Interoperability - Works with Java and c++

Kotlin is designed with Java Interoperability in mind. Pretty much all Java code can be used without any issues and Kotlin code can be used from Java rather smoothly as well.


Closing Thoughts

Kotlin is relatively simple to pick-up for beginners and in many ways more modern than Java. No offense but java has become obsolete with growing trends of IT.

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