What Is Kotlin? | Introduction To Kotlin

We will be learning what is kotlin

 

Kotlin is extensively used for android development and,

 

is used by more than 60 percent of the professional android developers for their projects.

 

so let's go ahead and understand what is kotlin

 

1- Why kotlin?

 

2 - What is kotlin?

 

3 - History of the kotlin language?

 

4 - Features and uses?

 

5 - Companies that uses kotlin language

 

 

1 - Why Kotlin?

 

Kotlin is one of the fastest growing and extensively used programming language in may 2017.

 

Google announced it as an official language for developing android applications.

 

After this announcement the jobs for kotlin increased in large numbers.

 

Since then the job openings for kotlin gets doubled every three months as per dice.

 

It is very easy and friendly language also,

 

it is quite easy to maintain and debug this language.

 

which is why it is a good language to start with kotlin,

 

A bright future as it is being widely used for android development companies like

 

Google

 

Netflix

 

pinterest are some of the companies using Kotlin.

 

So being a kotlin developer will boost up your career growth.

 

 

2 - What is Kotlin?

 

Kotlin is an open source statically typed language designed by jetbrains.

 

It has both the features of

 

Object oriented programming and

 

Functional programming.

 

 

Kotlin is interoperable with java,

 

that means both the languages can share and,

 

use the information and just like java compiler.

 

 

Kotlin compiler also generates the byte code which can run on jvm.

 

We can say kotlin is kind of java with some added features.

 

Even the java libraries can also be used in kotlin project although java is a really cool language.

 

 

Developers of kotlin focused more on simplifying the code and increasing the transparency.

 

 

 

 

3 - History of the Kotlin language.

 

The development of the kotlin language was announced in the year 2011.

 

In 2012 the first web demo of kotlin was released,

 

along with the new logo and became an open source then in 2014

 

Kotlin lang.org was released along with some features to increase the interoperability with java

in the year 2015.

 

Some new features were added like,

 

the companion objects multiple constructor etc.

 

 

After a quite long development process kotlin 1.0 version was released in february 2016.

 

It was developed by jetbrains in russia.

 

Developers of jetbrains were fed up with the repetitive code so,

 

they wanted a much modern language.

 

 

But the problem was most of their code was already written in java and,

 

switching to some other language would create a bigger headache for them.

 

 

 

So the team decided to create a language,

 

which is compatible with java and with all the features they wanted.

 

 

Then they created the kotlin language in the year 2017 google announced the first class support for kotlin on android

 

Later kotlin 1.2 was released with features like sharing code between jvm and javascript.

 

after that

 

various versions were released like

 

kotlin 1.3 in 2018

 

kotlin 1.4 in 2020

 

kotlin 1.5 in 2021 etc.

 

 

4 - Features of kotlin language

 

The first feature is kotlin language can be used on multiple platforms which reduces the time.

 

 

That is spent on writing and maintaining the code on different platforms.

 

Kotlin doesn't depend on virtual machine on the target platform.

 

Kotlin has some modern features

 

Null safety which is a feature to reduce the problems associated with the null references.

 

The lambda which is an anonymous function,

 

and the smart casts which are used to track conditions inside the f expression

 

Kotlin language

 

There are many extensions,

 

which allows us to add the functionality,

 

without inheriting from the class or any decorative pattern.

 

This feature makes the code easy to maintain and read.

 

 

Kotlin functions

 

Kotlin functions can be passed as parameters to the function.

 

That means function act as a variable and just like the variable it can also be passed.

 

 

It is also known as higher order function,

 

its functionality is to do two things first to take the functions as parameters and,

 

second to return a function.

 

 

Kotlin is compatible with java

 

It is fully interoperable with java and,

 

you can convert the java file to the kotlin file with just a script.

 

also it works on jvm and java libraries work fine on kotlin.

 

 

Data class

 

A data class is that class which doesn't perform any operation and only contains state,

 

the advantage of this class is that it.

 

Provides self-generated code and avoids the implementation of methods within the class.

 

 

Uses of kotlin

 

Kotlin is used in web development

 

it is compatible with java and also much easier to work with.

 

also kotlin works fine with spring and some other frameworks,

 

which makes it an easy replacement of java,

 

when it comes to web development,  

 

kotlin is used in data science as well

 

Because of its features like null safety statically typed maintainable code and also being a language which runs on jvm makes scotland a good choice for working with the data

 

Used for android development

 

after google has announced kotlin as the first class language the user's interest in cotton language elevated to a great extent which resulted in creating a large community of android developers going for kotlin.

 

This language allows the developers to write more expressive and concise code and its interoperability with java is one of the main attraction to choose this language.

 

With google statement not only the android developers but also the app development companies are opting the kotlin language.

 

Similar to these uses there are many more uses to the cotton language but now let's move on to its applications.

 

So we'll start with google,

 

Google widely uses the kotlin language.

 

Not only they have declared it as the first class programming.

 

But they also use it in their production code.

 

google also implemented kotlin in more than 60 applications.

 

such as google home

 

Google maps

 

Google drive

 

Google pay

 

google sheets etc.

 

Similarly

Airbnb

 

which is an american company,

 

That operates online marketplace for lodging and home stays to vacation rentals,

 

also uses kotlin language for their android frameworks.

 

Mvrx

 

For a seamless experience

 

other companies like zometo which is india's largest food delivery company,

 

also uses kotlin for the android app.

 

which has helped them to reduce the lines of code and made the code a lot more concise.

 

Netflix

 

Netflix is world's leading streaming service also use the kotlin language to rebuild their ui player for the android app of netflix.

 

Uber

 

The american mobility company uber that provides services like food delivery ride hailing package delivery couriers etc.

 

uses kotlin language because of its popularity for android development and,

 

its interoperability with java so these were some popular companies that uses the kotlin language.

 

similar to these companies there are many more companies like pinterest tinder slack etc.

 

that uses this language.