Kotlin: What is Kotlin? Why is Kotlin in demand for developers?

Ever since Android came into existence, Java has been the official language for developing android apps. Java doubtlessly has worked well for most of the developers. For android apps development, the official language, without any doubt has proved to be a robust one.

However, a fact that can’t be denied is that –Java was never the best rather it was the only language existing for Android projects. Java had its own flaws and shortfalls which led to a number of challenges to the developers ranging from verbose syntax, Null pointer Exception to the never-ending concept of try-catch blocks.

For the longest possible time, Java has been used for endless Android projects but the developers now need to know that ‘Kotlin’ has arrived in the market already and it’s high time for them to switch to Kotlin for their android projects.

In the Google I/O conference, Google made a much-required announcement; the announcement that Android developers will finally get to work on a better platform called ‘Kotlin’. This language completely supports Android Studio.

Kotlin is a cross-platform, statically typed, general-purpose programming language which runs on Java Virtual Machine and is an alternative of Java. Now, you have question that Which types of apps do you develop in Kotlin?

Now, the question arises why to drop Java and switch to Kotlin?

The set-up of Kotlin in Android Studio is very simple and easy. First you can install Kotlin plugin in Android Studio. Then Add Kotlin classpath to project Build.Gradle. Then Add Kotlin library and apply Kotlin Plugins in your module Build.gradle. Then Ready To Go. A mere click on ‘Allow Kotlin support’ lets a developer switch to Kotlin.

Kotlin is fully interoperable and compatible with Java which is one of the biggest advantages. Basically, a developer gets to use both Java and Kotlin on an ongoing project. In addition to that, Kotlin allows using existing Java frameworks and Java features also. Interoperability can in fact be considered as the basis for the increasing popularity of Kotlin.

Java is quite infamous for being too verbose. There is so much of unnecessary coding required to write even the not so complex programs. On the other hand, Kotlin is configured in such a way that the developer is saved from excessive-needless programming. Kotlin requires approximately 8 times less coding than Java. This is achieved by lessening the volume of boilerplate code.

One of the major issues with Java was Null Pointer Exception which led to the crashing of a number of Android Apps. Every developer must have faced this problem. This exception is avoidable in Kotlin and is absolutely null safe. This feature alone is gigantic enough for the developers to switch to Kotlin as soon as possible.

For any developer, to understand and learn Kotlin is almost effortless. One can have a good grasp on this language by studying for just 1 day. The design and syntax of Kotlin is very simple to comprehend. By these, many developers emphasise Kotlin will soon become the dominant platform for Android development.

A developer can switch to Kotlin without putting much effort or spending much time. This is because Kotlin is an open source language. To use Kotlin, one can simply use Java – to – Kotlin converter tool developed by Jetbrain. This tool saves lot of developer’s time.

Kotlin has many extensions which can be used by the developer. These extensions basically make the development process easier. It allow recovering views from Activities, Fragments, and Views in an amazing seamless way. It also builds a local view cache. One such extension is ‘Synthetic’ Extension.

Often, while coding in Java, the programmers tend to miss putting semicolon at the end of lines. Kotlin is free from the usage of semicolons. The developers using Kotlin will no longer need to check for missing semi-colons.

Kotlin is far more safe and reliable than Java. Kotlin is better prevented from bugs and probability of errors is less as well. Even if errors occur in Kotlin, they are detected during compile time itself which improves the reliability of apps.

Even if Kotlin has recently grown in the field of Android Apps development, it has been there in the market and has been exploited by many programmers since a long time. So, it isn’t a new language for which support won’t be available. There are a lot of communities to help you with Kotlin’s functionality.

With a minimal learning curve, Kotlin is ideal for both freshers and pro developers to get started. With the increase in the demand for Kotlin developers and the advantage it offers to developers, it’s no doubt that a lot of developers are switching to Kotlin.

But if you’re not a developer and looking for a Kotlin app development service, you are at the right place. Our team of in-house developers know the tool and are part of communities as well. Your app gets their expertise and domain knowledge which would show in the market. Get in touch with us today.