Kotlin Programming Language
Overview
Let’s get started with Kotlin Programming language. Kotlin is an object-oriented, general-purpose, modern cross-platform programming language developed by JetBrains. It is statically typed, and JVM-targeted ( fully interoperable with Java). Kotlin is Android’s official language with excellent IDE and Build tools support.
Kotlin Features
Kotlin is recommended by Google to build Android applications. Some of the Kotlin features are as follows:
Concise
Kotlin code is more concise than Java code. Kotlin reduces boilerplate code. Kotlin automatically generates equals(), hashCode(), toString(), and copy() for the data class.
Object-oriented
Kotlin is an object-oriented programming language like C++, Java, etc. We can design and program real-world entities as objects and data.
Asynchronous
Kotlin uses coroutines for non-blocking code execution. Coroutines are suspendable functions that can execute, pause and resume at a later point in time without blocking the other code execution.
Safe
Kotlin has a feature called Null Safety. It eliminates the risk of occurrence of the NullPointerException(NPE).
Interoperable
We can call Kotlin code from the Java code without any issues. Kotlin is JVM-compatible.
Multi-platform
We can have the same codebase for multiple mobile platforms like Android and iOS. We can use Kotlin to develop Android applications/ backend apps/ frontend apps/ cross-platform mobile applications or multi-platform libraries.
Excellent IDE support
Kotlin has excellent IDE support.
- Android Studio
- IntelliJ IDEA
- Eclipse
- NetBeans
Build Tool support
Tools that support Kotlin are:
- Gradle
- Apache Maven
- Apache Ant
Kotlin is shipped bundled with popular IDE tools. We can download and install one of these IDE tools to start working with Kotlin.
- IntelliJ IDEA
- Android Studio
Steps to install IntelliJ IDEA on Windows:
https://www.testingdocs.com/download-intellij-ide-on-windows-11/
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More information on the Kotlin programming language: