👩‍💻What are the Differences Between KAPT and KSP in Android?
Introduction
Hello everyone! 🙌
In today’s article, I will talk about the differences between Kapt and Ksp. First of all, what are the Kapt and Ksp, let’s learn about them.
What is Kapt?
Kapt stands for Kotlin Annotation Processing Tool. It is a command-line tool and builds plugins for the Kotlin programming language. It helps us to process annotations in Kotlin code during the build process. It works with build tools such as Gradle and Maven to analyze annotated code and generate additional code.
Now, let’s look at some key points for Kapt. 👀
✨ Annotation Processing: The main purpose of this tool is to process annotations in Kotlin code. Annotations are metadata that are added to code elements to provide additional information to the compiler. Kapt is responsible for analyzing these annotations.
✨ Code Generation: It can generate additional Kotlin or Java code based on the annotations and the annotated elements. It reduces boilerplate code because it automates repetitive tasks.
✨ Custom Annotations: Kapt can be configured to process custom annotations and generate code specific to the developer’s needs.
✨ Use Cases: It generates dependency injection frameworks or JSON serialization/deserialization, database access code, and API client to simplify the development process by automating code generation.
âś” We can implement the Kapt by writing these code lines into the build Gradle file:
plugins{
id("kotlin-kapt")
}dependencies {
implementation "com.google.dagger:dagger:2.x"
kapt "com.google.dagger:dagger-compiler:2.x"
}What is Ksp?
Ksp stands for Kotlin Symbol Processors. Ksp is a framework that addresses some of the limitations and challenges associated with traditional annotation processing using Kapt. Ksp is designed to improve the performance and ease of annotation processing in Kotlin.
Let’s look at some key points for Ksp 🔍
✨ Performance: The main goal of KSP is to enhance the performance of annotation processing.
✨ Kotlin-Centric: Ksp is designed to take advantage of Kotlin-type system and language features. In this way, it works seamlessly with Kotlin.
✨ Kotlin-DSL Integration: Ksp integrates well with Kotlin DSL (Domain Specific Language). This makes it easier to write code generation logic using Kotlin, resulting in cleaner code.
✨ Improved Code Generation: Ksp provides more powerful code generation capabilities. It allows the creation of new symbols and types. In this way, it makes situations such as dependency injection and serialization versatile.
What are the differences between Kapt and Ksp?
âž° Maturity: Kapt is the more established and widely used tool.
âž° Ecosystem: Many libraries and frameworks in the Kotlin ecosystem like Dagger 2 and Room, are built to work with Kapt. Kapt is the recommended tool if you are using these libraries.
âž° Newer Tool: Ksp is a newer annotation processing tool. It was designed to address some of the limitations and challenges of Kapt.
âž° Performance: Ksp is 2x faster than Kapt.
âž° Direct Integration: Ksp offers direct integration with the Kotlin compiler. It works with Kotlin symbols and APIs. In this way, it provides cleaner code generation.
âž° Compatibility: Ksp is promising but at an early stage compared to Kapt. If your project requirements are not met by Ksp, it will not be compatible with all existing libraries and build systems.
We can clearly see the differences in the table:
If you want to migrate from Kapt to Ksp, you can read this and follow the instructions.
Also, if you are going to use Ksp, I suggest you check supported libraries first đź’»
Conclusion
Ksp is faster than Kapt. You can decrease build times by using Ksp. Using Kapt can be easier if your project is an existing project. However, using Ksp can be easier if your project is a newer project. Because Ksp does not support some libraries.
