The Kotlin programming language by JetBrains has been used for building dozens of world-class IDEs including IntelliJ IDEA, PhpStorm, Appcode, etc. JetBrains first released it in 2011. In addition to being a better language than Java, Kotlin is still completely interoperable with Java code.
- Start by installing the free Community Edition of IntelliJ IDEA available from JetBrains.
IntelliJ IDEA
Start by creating a Kotlin application in Intellij IDEA.
Create a new project in IDEA File -> New -> Project.Then select Kotlin.
Name your project and select the SDK version for it. Here we name the project NM_s2!.
Now you have new project NM_s2!. Create a new Kotlin file under the source(src) folder and let’s name it is s2.kt
SRC >> New >> File >> nm_s2 This will create kotin file where we will be demonstratingthe skills.
Once you have created the project, right click on project and add new Kotlin class as shown above or you can navigate to src>>main>>kotlin>> folders in you project and do the same to make it even more simple
Hello, World! Appears in every programming language as the first program. How about writing the first Kotlin program?
This is the default program once you created the new project in kotlin. Let us go through the program line by line.
This lines of code will explain you the basics of kotlin
// “double forward slash” is used for comment statements which will not be considered as a part of code but something as a reference to what exactly code is doing.
The next part of the code contains the main function. Kotlin requires a main function to execute; without the main function it won’t be able to compile the program.
In the main function we have passed and argument which consider the array of strings
Since “hello world” is a string data type
On the next line we print statement is used
Where” println” is used to print something
Print: to print something
Println: to print something on next line
The content which is written in “ ” is printed as it is in the output.
Output
kotlin
The Kotlin programming language runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), an open-source static typed programming language. With unrestricted, self-sufficient, and distinctive platforms, it combines Object Oriented Programming and Functional Programming. The JetBrains company designed Kotlin to be a general-purpose programming language.
The need of the kotlin arrived since as to address JetBrains’ developer challenges, Kotlin was invented. Their main product, IntelliJ IDEA, is entirely written in Java, so they required a simpler tool than Java to work with it. The guys investigated the alternatives, stayed unsatisfied, and decided to invent their own language. It was intended to obtain an effective tool that could be used with Java in the development of custom Android apps and run wherever Java is supported.
The development of Kotlin started in 2010. Six years later, in February 2016, we saw the appearance of the first Kotlin version – 1.0. In 2017, at Google I/O annual conference, Kotlin was announced an official language for Android development.
Kotlin can be used for any kind of development, be it server-side, client-side web and Android. With Kotlin/Native currently in the works, support for other platforms such as embedded systems, macOS and iOS is coming. People are using Kotlin for mobile and server-side applications, client-side with JavaScript or JavaFX, and data science, just to name a few possibilities.
Applications
Data science
When it comes to data science, Kotlin is very useful since it is concise, readable and easy to learn. It also supports static typing and null safety features which helps to create reliable, efficient code which makes it easy to troubleshoot. Being a JVM language, Kotlin gives you great performance and an ability to leverage an entire ecosystem of tried and true Java libraries.
Android development
One of the main components and the reason behind the success and popularity of Kotlin is due to its massive use in android projects by developers. It writes better Android apps faster with Kotlin. Kotlin is a modern statically typed programming language used by over 60% of professional Android developers that helps boost productivity, developer satisfaction, and code safety. Android apps that use Kotlin are 20% less likely to crash.
Back-end web development
More than 1,000 participating Kotlin developers, 41% used the language for web backend development. This shows that there is a growing community interest in what Kotlin can offer to backend developers.
Full-stack web development
Using Kotlin throughout the whole stack also makes it possible to write classes and functions that can be used from both the JVM and JS targets of our application.
Kotlin Progress and limitations
Kotlin was just announced as the first class language for Android by Google. It’s not replacing Java or C++ . If you look at jobs for kotlin, currently there are not many but I am assuming it will start growing after this announcement.
Kotlin’s page shows that many large companies use it for their apps, so despite all the odds it has made it.
When compared with the applications developed with pure Java, the Android Studio compilation and auto-complete run extremely slowly. Kotlin is extremely slow when it comes to compiling when compared to Java.
Due to its comparatively newness and challenge, and its concise syntax, Kotlin takes a lot longer to learn than I expected. Since Kotlin is a brand new programming language, the developer community for the language is quite small and getting answers to questions is difficult.
This the topic is being concluded and I hope you have learned something about kotlin and know more about it now. Thank you for your time and hope to see you soon.