KOTLIN

WHAT IS KOTLIN?

Kotlin is object-oriented language and is a modern, trending programming language that was released in 2016 by JetBrains. It is a statically typed, general-purpose programming language, that has built world-class IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA, PhpStorm, Appcode, etc.

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF KOTLIN?

• Statically typed –Statically typed is a programming language characteristic that means the type of every variable and expression is known at compile time. Although it is statically typed language, it does not require you to explicitly specify the type of every variable you declare.
• Concise — It drastically reduces the extra code written in other object-oriented programming languages.
• Interoperable with Java — Kotlin runs on Java Virtual Machine(JVM) so it is totally interoperable with java. We can easily access use java code from kotlin and kotlin code from java.
• Smart Cast — It explicitly typecasts the immutable values and inserts the value in its safe cast automatically. If we try to access a nullable type of String ( String? = “BYE”) without safe cast it will generate a compile error.
• Tool- Friendly –It has excellent tooling support. Any of the Java IDEs — IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse and Android Studio can be used for Kotlin. We can also be run Kotlin program from command line.
• Data Classes–In Kotlin, there are Data Classes which lead to auto-generation of boilerplate like equals, hash Code, to String, getters/setters and much more.
• Safe –It provides the safety from most annoying and irritating Null Pointer Exceptions by supporting nullability as part of its system .Every variable in Kotlin is non-null by default.
• Functional and Object Oriented Capabilities –Kotlin has rich set of many useful methods which includes higher-order functions, lambda expressions, operator overloading, lazy evaluation, operator overloading and much more .Higher order function is a function which accepts function as a parameter or returns a function or can do both.
• Compilation time –It has higher performance and fast compilation time.

WHY TO PREFER KOTLIN OVER JAVA?

• Readability: Comparing to Java, Kotlin has more readable and precise code which makes it easier to understand the program. After a small learning curve, a Java developer can easily understand how to write Kotlin very quickly.
• Null safe: Kotlin is null-safe by default. It does not allow variables to be assigned with a null value. But in Java, we can assign null values to variables and, it may lead to null pointer exception that may crash the application.
• Using Getters and Setters: In Java, we have to use getter and setter functions for receiving data from variables in the modal classes. Model classes are just used for holding data. We can use the getters and setters for accessing the data from model classes. Whereas in Kotlin we don’t need all those getter and setter functions. We can access all the data’s using the variable name itself.

JAVA:

KOTLIN:

• Interoperability: Kotlin language is interoperable. This means that both Java and Kotlin are somewhat similar and we can use java commands and Java libraries in a Kotlin project. Since Java is still being used by most programmers, Kotlin has been made to be interoperable. It can be used with existing Java classes and won’t cause any errors. The compiler will allow the code containing the Java and Kotlin classes to work flawlessly.
• Immutability :An immutable object is an object whose state cannot be changed once it is created. In Kotlin variables are defined using val or var to help developers easily understand which values can be reassigned. The benefit is that it allows you to just get on with the project at hand.

APPLICATIONS OF KOTLIN

• Can be used to build Android Application.
• Compiles to JavaScript, and makes it available for the frontend.
• It is also designed to work well for web development and server-side development.

APPS DEVELOPED BY KOTLIN

• Pinterest
• Postmates
• Evernote
• Corda
• Coursera
• Uber
• Spring by Pivotal
• Atlassian | Trello
• Basecamp 3
• Twidere for Twitter
• Shadowsocks
• Simple Calendar
• Kickstarter
• Square
• Gradle

WHY IS KOTLIN USED IN ANDROIDS?

Kotlin is an Android-compatible language that is concise, expressive, and designed to be type- and null-safe. It works with the Java language seamlessly, so it makes it easy for developers who love the Java language to keep using it but also incrementally add Kotlin code and leverage Kotlin libraries.