What is Kotlin Programming Language?

Programming languages are slowly becoming obsolete and are being replaced by faster, newer, and better ones. In recent years one programming language to come into the limelight is Kotlin.

Designed by Czech software giant JetBrains, Kotlin was introduced to the world in 2011. It is a general programming language and works well on various platforms. So, let us look at what Kotlin is and its benefits of Kotlin.

Nothing is better than learning new capacities that can ease our work!

What is kotlin?

Foundation & history

Kotlin is a programming language statically-typed running on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and it compiles the Kotlin code to a Java byte-code.  It was introduced by JetBrains as the base of Android Studio in developing Android applications.

Kotlin was introduced in 2011  Although it was ready to use, it was not in a stable stage to be used for development processes in a fully-fledged manner. Over the years the language got improved and became more programming suitable and robust for the developers.

Later in 2017, Google announced Kotlin officially the first-class programming language for Android applications!. The news was followed by a huge widespread acceptance for kotlin among the developers. The Android Studio version 3.0 came with the integrated support for Kotlin and things became quite seamless on the development front.

Kotlin contributions in the development world

Kotlin is quite flexible to use and has some really cool features to offer. Below are the couple of things that makes it so powerful and yet an easy go solution for the Android application development:

• Easy to learn:

  It is considered to be a very easy language to learn as its syntax is very similar to Java’s and so you won’t have a hard time remembering it. It is also more  expressive,  better understandable and readable language

• Compatibility:
  

  The language is compatible with JDK 6, so you do not have to worry about the older versions being left behind.

• Interoperability:

  It is completely interoperable with Java including the annotations.

• Performance:

  The performance is better and is on par with Java.

• Concise:

  Kotlin is a functional language based on JVM, reducing a lot more boilerplate code as compared to the other programming languages.

Kotlin is getting its strong foothold among people who believe it to be a great breakthrough programming language. The most amazing quality of Kotlin is its ability to co-exist with Java. Both languages’ classes can be maintained in a project and can work smoothly with each other without any hindrance.

Keep in mind It is very easy to convert a Java class to a  Kotlin one! Easy steps Just got to Code->Convert Java File to Kotlin File and it’s done.

On doing so you will see a notice message where you have to click Ok and the rest will be taken care of for you. Your Java file will be converted to Kotlin file in no time.

It is obvious that Kotlin comes with some great handy features yet it is still evolving so developers can expect greater additions to come in the future. One feature that is supposed to be included without fail is Coroutines.

If you need to run some asynchronous code then here’s your thing to go for.

Kotlin Coroutines are a much more advanced feature allowing developers to deal with the asynchronous tasks easier. Note that  Coroutines are in a stable stage to be used.

Conclusion

Now that you know what Kotlin programming language and the benefits of Kotlin are, it is always the best option to clear your head when learning modern programming languages and helping you achieve the milestones you want.

FAQs on Kotlin