What is kotlin?

 Introduction to Kotlin?

Kotlin is a modern, statically-typed programming language designed to be a more concise and expressive alternative to Java. It was developed by JetBrains, the same company that created the popular IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE, and was first released in 2011. Kotlin is interoperable with Java and runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which makes it a great choice for building Android applications.

Some of the key features of Kotlin include:

• Conciseness: Kotlin allows you to write more concise code compared to Java. For example, it has type inference, which means you don't need to explicitly specify the type of a variable if the compiler can infer it.

• Null safety: Kotlin has built-in null safety features that help prevent null pointer exceptions. It accomplishes this by distinguishing between nullable and non-nullable types and forcing developers to handle null values explicitly.

• Interoperability: Kotlin is designed to be fully interoperable with Java. This means that you can use java libraries and frameworks in Kotlin code, and vice versa.

• Functional programming support: Kotlin provides support for functional programming concepts such as lambdas, higher-order functions, and immutability.

• Coroutines: Kotlin has built-in support for coroutines, which are a lightweight concurrency mechanisms that allows you to write asynchronous code in a more natural and readable way.

Overall, Kotlin is a powerful and flexible language that can be used for a wide range of applications, from Android development to web development to server-side programming.

Before going further, have a quick rundown of all Kotlin Basics topics:

• Why Learn Kotlin?
• Kotlin History
• Why Choose Kotlin over Java?
• Features of Kotlin
• Application of Kotlin
• Advantages of Kotlin
• Disadvantage of Kotlin

Why Learn Kotlin?

There are many reasons to learn Kotlin, some of which include:

1. Android Development: Kotlin has become the preferred language for Android development because of its conciseness, null safety features, and ease of use. Many developers have switched to Kotlin for Android development, and it is now full supported with Java.

2. Modern Language: Kotlin is modern programming language that combines all the best bits if imperative, object-oriented , and functional programming. It is general-purpose and multi-paradigm, and conciseness and safety are some of the language's key features.

3. Interoperability with Java: Kotlin is fully interoperable with Java, which means you can use Java libraries and frameworks in Kotlin code, and vice versa. This makes it easy to integrate Kotlin code into existing Java projects, or to use existing Java code in Kotlin projects.

4. Conciseness: Kotlin allows you to write more concise and expressive code than Java, which can lean to improved productivity and fewer errors. For example, Kotlin has type inference, which means you don't need to explicitly specify the type of a variable if the compiler can infer it.

5. Functional Programming Support: Kotlin provides support for functional programming concepts such as lambdas, higher-order functions, and immutability. This makes it easy to write concise and expressive code that is easy to read and maintain.

6. Coroutines: Kotlin has built-in support for coroutines, which are a lightweight concurrency mechanism that allows you to write asynchronous code in a more natural and readable way. This can make it easier to write synchro code that is easier to understand and maintain.

7. Easy to Learn: Kotlin's syntax is simple to grasp for beginners, while at the same time, the language offers sophisticated powerful features for experienced programmers.

Kotlin can build on the learners previous programming experience. It is simple to grasp for those with a Java or Python background. Kotlin's syntax is also easy to learn for iOS developers because it is based on the same modern concepts they are already familiar with.

Overall, Kotlin is a powerful and flexible language that can be used for a wide range of applications, and learning Kotlin can help you become a more versatile and effective developer.

Kotlin History

Kotlin was first announced in July 2011 by JetBrains, a software development company based in Russia. The company had been working on a new language that was designed to address some of the pain points of developing in Java. The team behind Kotlin wanted to create a language that was more concise, expressive, and safer than Java.

Kotlin was designed to be fully interoperable with Java, which means that is could be used in conjunction with existing Java code and libraries. This made Kotlin an attractive option for Android development, which was then dominated by Java.

In 2016, Google announced that it was officially adding support for Kotlin to Android Studio, the primary development environment for Android apps. This move by Google was seen as a significant endorsement of Kotlin and helped to popularize the language further.

Since then, Kotlin has continued to grow in popularity and is now considered one of the top programming languages for Android development. It is also increasingly being used for server-side development, web development, and other types of applications.

In May 2019, JetBrains announced that it was transferring the Kotlin trademark and copyright to the Kotlin Foundation, a non-profit organization that was established to promote the development and adoption of the Kotlin programming language. This move was seen as a way to ensure the long-term development and sustainability of kotlin as a language.

Why Choose Kotlin over Java?

While Java is a mature and popular language, Kotlin offers several advantages over Java that may make it a better choice for some projects. Some of these advantages include:

1. Conciseness: Kotlin is a more concise language than Java. It has several features that allow developers to write code more quickly and with fewer lines of code. For example, Kotlin has type inference, which means you don't need to explicitly specify the type of a variable if the compiler can infer it.

2. Null Safety: Kotlin has built-in null safety features that help prevent null pointer exceptions. It accomplishes this by distinguishing between nullable and non-nullable types and forcing developers to handle null values explicitly.

3. Interoperability with Java: Kotlin is designed to be fully interoperable with Java, which means that is can use Java libraries and frameworks and vice versa. This makes it easy to integrate Kotlin code into existing Java projects, or to use existing Java code in Kotlin projects.

4. Functional Programming Support: Kotlin provides support for functional programming concepts such as lambdas, higher-order functions, and immutability. This makes it easy to write concise and expressive code that is easy to read and maintain.

5. Coroutines: Kotlin has built-in support for coroutines, which are a lightweight concurrency mechanism that allows you to write asynchronous code in a more natural and readable way. This can make it easier to write asynchronous code that is easier to understand and maintain.

6. Shorter program for the same task: Kotlin is a statically-types language which is very easy to read and write. It has a much simpler and shorter code than Java's code for the same problem. As this makes the language more human-readable, it becomes easy to debug. Kotlin's code is much smaller and streamlines the programming process, in comparison to Java. This is partly because of Kotlin's slick IDE.

7. Easy Code: Kotlin programs do not need semicolons in their program. This makes the programs easy to read and understand. They also have smart casts and string templates. Java is not a succinct language. Such a language means fewer chances of both runtime and compile time errors. Kotlin gives a simple way to use mutable and immutable declaration for different data structures.

Features of Kotlin

Kotlin is a modern, statically types programming language that is designed to be concise, expressive, and safe. Some of its key features include:

1. Null Safety: More than 70% android app crashes dur to null pointer exception of java. Java does not provide any ways of protection against the null. The developer has to handle it on his/her own.

But Kotlin handles nulls really nicely. In kotlin you cannot get null pointer exception implicitly. Kotlin compiler by default doesn't allow any types to have a value of null at compile time. So if you use kotlin then it will reduce your app crashes and gives better user experience to your user.

2. Interoperability with Java: Kotlin is 100% interoperable with java. You can easily call Kotlin code from Java and Java code from Kotlin. This makes adoption much easier and lower-risk. There's also an automated Java-to-Kotlin converter built into the IDE that simplifies migration of existing code. Keep your old java file as it is and create new features in the new kotlin file.

3. Concise code: Developers always love clean and concise code. Less code takes less time to write, less time to read, and also makes easy to maintain it.

Kotlin has really concise code compare to java. It drastically reduces the amount of boilerplate code. So compare to java you will write less amount of code in Kotlin, which increases the speed of your development.

Rough estimates indicate that kotlin requires 40% less line of codes compare to java.

4. Extension Functions: Kotlin allows developers to add new functionality to existing classes without having to inherit from them. This is done through extension function, which allow you to add new methods to any class, even those in the standard library.

5. Data classes: Any Java developer is acquainted with the model class they need to create for getters and setters. This is where Kotlin looks utterly different as app developers now can do away with the complexity by merely adding data in front of the class, which will work as the model class. This model class without any getters and setters will be able to reach out of the member on its own.

6. Coroutines: Kotlin has built-in support for coroutines, which are a lightweight concurrency mechanism that allows you to write asynchronous code in a more natural and readable way. This can make it easier to write asynchronous code that is easier to understand and maintain.

7. Functional Programming Support: Kotlin provides support for functional programming concepts such as lambdas. higher-order functions, and immutability. This makes it easy to write concise and expressive code that is easy to read and maintain.

8. Extension Functions: As a fully equipped programming language, Kotlin comes with a bucket of Standard Library Functions that help extends and expand the existing class. This extensibility is one of the key aspects of Kotlin programming language. The extension functions of the Kotlin library's actually help with new functionalities.

9. Operator Overloading: This is another key feature of the language. With Kotlin, we can now implement several operators based on our types. These are the operators that are represented symbolically through + or *, for instance. Applying the operator is very easy as it allows us to give a fixed name to core and extension function. Finally, the overloaded operator also needs marking by the operator modifier.

10. Low Cost: This is the reasons for Kotlin to be on the priority list of many entrepreneurs. This programming language is the no or low cost adoption that is associated with it for its usage.

It is open-source, so you do not have to spend over Kotlin for its license. Additionally, if we compare Kotlin with other programming languages, then it is also easy and quick to learn for developers.

Application of Kotlin

Kotlin is a versatile programming language that can be used for a wide range of applications, from mobile app development to server-side web development. Some of the common applications of Kotlin include:

1. Android app development: As we mentioned, Kotlin is the preferred language for Android development as it allows developers to write more concise, expressive, and safer code. The official IDE for Android development, Android Studio, supports it completely, so you can get the same type of code completion and type checking to help you write Kotlin code completion and type checking to help you write Kotlin code as you do with Java.

Having a mobile presence is a requirement for most business since most people access the internet now through mobile phones. Android accounts for over 70% of the market share of mobile phones, so even if Kotlin was only for Android development, Kotlin developers would be in high demand. Still, it can be used for so much more.

2. Backend Development: A lot of back-end development is done in Java, using frameworks like Spring. But, Kotlin made inroads into server-side web development since it was so much easier for developers to work with.

The modern features of the language make it possible for Web Developers to build application that can scale quickly on commodity hardware. Since Kotlin is interoperable with Java, you can slowly migrate an application to use Kotlin one file at a time while the rest of the application still uses Java.

Kotlin also works with Spring and other frameworks, so switching to Kotlin doesn't mean you have to change everything you're used to. Google, Amazon, and many other companies have already replaced Java with Kotlin in some of their server-side code.

3. Web Development: Kotlin can be used to develop web applications using frameworks such as React, Vue.js, and Angular JS.

4. Desktop Development: Kotlin can be used for desktop application development using frameworks such as TornadoFX and JavaFX.

5. Game Development: Kotlin can be used for game development using game engines such as LibGDX and Unity.

6. Data science: Data Scientists have always used Java to crunch numbers, detect trends, and make predictions - so it only makes sense that Kotlin would find a home in data science as well. 

Data Scientists can use all the standard Java libraries that they used for Java projects but write their own code in Kotlin. Jupyter and Zeppelin, two tools used daily by many Data Scientists for data visualization and exploratory research, also support Kotlin.

7. Multi-platform mobile development: Kotlin Multi-platform Mobile is intended to be a software development kit for creating cross-platform mobile applications. This means that from one Kotlin code base, you'll be able to compile apps that run on not just Android phones but also iPhones and the Apple watch. This project is currently in the alpha stage but has a lot of promise.

Overall, Kotlin's versatility and ease of use make it an attractive choice for many types of applications, and its continued growth in popularity if a testament to its usefulness.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Kotlin

Even though Kotlin is fairly new compared to the programming languages such as Java, it has a lot of advantages over the traditional Java Android Development. In this section, we are going to discuss those.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Smaller learning curve	Not as mature as Java
Productivity improvement	A bit slower
Fewer bugs	Hiring can be difficult
Better reliability	Learning Kotlin can be hard
Incorporate with Java	You still need Java

Advantages of Kotlin:

1. Smaller learning curve: Compared to its predecessor Java, kotlin's learning curve is much smaller. Anyone who had a basic understanding of programming can start developing in Kotlin without any previous Android development experience. Instead of just cloning the functionalities of Java, Kotlin focuses on enhancing its features to be much reliable and easy, based on the most useful parts of the high level programming languages. This allows Kotlin to deliver the exact same functionality with a much cleaner and easy to learn structure.

2. Productivity improvement: Because it is easy to learn and maintain, there is a huge productivity boost compared to Java and other Android development programming languages, it may not be as fast as coding in Flutter. However, given the functionality and the well-though features, it you really want to make Android development much more fun and easy, kotlin the best choice out there. kotlin can be extremely productive at the same time being powerful for developing complex applications that require a lot of business logic.

3. Fewer bugs: If you code in Kotlin, the changes of making bugs are extremely less compared to other complex programming languages. The reason is very simple and straight forward. Because it is easy to learn and only will be also less code to accomplish the same thing, the number of bugs will be also less. So, if you are a Kotlin programmer, the time you spend on fixing bugs will be extremally low compared to other languages. Definitely a catch for experienced developers who frequently spend hours figuring out the source of a bug.

4. Better reliability: More and more developers are moving towards the programming languages that are easy to write and manage. This means complex programming languages such as Java might go stale in the near future. While it is not a certainty, the latest statistics based on the programming language surveys suggest that it is better to go with the high level programming languages unless you want to really dig deep into the features provided by the platforms. Of course, if you want to make use of the extremely advanced functions that are only accessible with the low level languages such as Java, you have no other options except going for it. If that is not the case, going with a high-level programming languages such as Kotlin will definitely provide you better reliability moving forward.

5. Incorporate with Java: If you want to start using Kotlin, you do not have to completely rewrite your code base into language. You can simply integrate it with the existing Java code and start writing the new sections in Kotlin. The reason is very simple, Kotlin is built on top of Java. Which means any code that you write Kotlin is basically Java code. This can be a Hugh advantage for the companies that already uses a lot of Java code.

Disadvantages of Kotlin:

1. Not as mature as Java: One of the biggest drawbacks of starting with Kotlin is that it is not a matured programming languages as Java. Which means that, there could be a lot of bugs and Hugh changes coming up with every update. Even though there is a Hugh community around the language, if you run into some rare bugs, you might get stuck on it without getting as answer for a while, While programming languages such as Java that has been around for decades, it is very easy to answer for almost any bug that you might come across.

2. A bit slower: Kotlin is fast in a lot of areas, such as performing incremental builds. However, when it comes to raw power in developing clean Android applications, Java is still the winner. The reasons is obvious, because Kotlin is built on top of Java it is not going to get the exact same performance because of the underlying codebase that has run on top of the basic Java language. It is not extremely slow, and is completely ignorable considering the ease it provides in developing Android applications, eradicating the complexity for the beginners.

3. Hiring can be difficult: Because Kotlin is developed recently and is not as mature as Java as mentioned earlier, the number of available developers for Kotlin is also not as big. If you are a big company and planning to hire Kotlin developers as soon as possible, especially if the number if high, you might find it difficult to find experienced Kotlin developers. While many job portals such as Indeed has a pretty big list of Kotlin developers, finding good ones might be a bit difficult compared to hiring a Java developer. If you are a small company and just want to hire one or two, it will not be a big problem.

4. Learning Kotlin can be hard: When we say learning kotlin can be hard, we are not referring to the programing language itself, but finding proper learning materials. When you have carefully crafted learning materials made by experienced professionals, learning anything can be extremely easy. Because Kotlin is a fairly new programming language, the number of available resources that you can refer to is minimal. That means you will have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to do a certain thing in Kotlin, even when there are Java alternatives available everywhere on the internet.

5. You still need Java: Even though you are planning to completely program you are application in Kotlin, you might still want to use Java For certain things. Because the language is not mature enough to provide every single functionality that you might need, especially accessing the advanced functionalities of the hardware, you might still want to make use of Java to make those things work. So technically, you will be incorporating a lot of Java code inside your Kotlin project. While it cannot be considered as a complete disadvantages. because kotlin might force you to learn Java anyway, there is till a setback.