Write better Android apps faster with Kotlin
Expressive and concise
Kotlin's modern language features allow you to focus on expressing your ideas and write less boilerplate code.
Safer code
With @Nullable and @NonNull included in its type system, Kotlin helps you avoid NullPointerExceptions. Android apps that use Kotlin are 20% less likely to crash.
Interoperable
Kotlin is 100% interoperable with the Java programming language, so you can have as little or as much of Kotlin in your project as you want.
Structured concurrency
Kotlin coroutines streamline asynchronous programming, making common tasks like network calls and database updates simple and performant.
Features
Features Of Kotlin
Kotlin is a modern statically typed programming language used by over 60% of professional Android developers that helps boost productivity, developer satisfaction, and code safety.
Efficiency
The Kotlin programming language is not only easy to learn, it is also effective in the way that it codes your application. Developers won’t need to spend a lot of time grasping this language. The syntax is intuitive and lean.
One of the most attractive Kotlin features for developers is that it reduces code length. Compared to Java, you can say the same things with less lines. In fact, the coding is approximately 20% less than Java. With this reduced length, you have better chances at improving quality and operations. Kotlin basically makes coding efficient and testing near perfect.
April 14, 2021Extension Functions
As the name “extension function” suggests, this allows you to add extra features to your existing component, which makes it easy for you to add simple yet impressive features. This is perfect for calculations as well as for appending strings.
Let’s explore this with an example. Suppose you want to extend a class with new functionality. What would you do? Well, in most programming languages, you would drive a new class, right?
But that’s not the case with Kotlin. You can use extension functions here.
April 14, 2021Massive Interoperability
You can run Java codes on Kotlin and vice versa. You just need to add the Java class above to your Kotlin project.
The two languages co-exist, which makes developers’ lives easier and more productive. You can easily compile your single project in both languages with the help of the interoperability function, which allows you to switch the programming language without switching the codes.
Kotlin is a language that is 100% interoperable. If you want to access a Kotlin method from a Java class or vice versa, you can do it without any extra parameters.
April 14, 2021Reducing Crashes at Runtime
In Kotlin, you can easily identify the NullPointerException while compiling your project. This ensures every variable works as a non-null, thus reducing the number of crashes at run-time. If you want to hold onto a null value, just append a question mark as the end of the variable type.
April 14, 2021Smart Cast Function
This is the ultimate function from a developer’s perspective. It effectively reduces the application’s speed, thus improving its performance. The smart cast function is known to identify the type of function. It will perform all operations that have been coded for a particular type, thus improving code efficiency. Let’s say you have identified a string. With the smart cast function, you can copy, count the length, and perform other functions on the string type.
April 14, 2021Safe and Reliable
As mentioned earlier, one of the strongest Kotlin features is that it is relatively safe. Avoiding errors such as “NullPointException” is easy with Null Safe function. This function even allows you to avoid use for nullable types. You can automatically remove mistakes and simplify your code for debugging and operations.
April 14, 2021Low Cost of Adoption
A major reason businesses favor Kotlin over other programming languages is the no or low cost of adoption associated with it. It is open source, so you don’t need to invest money on license. Secondly, relative to other programming languages, Kotlin is pretty easy to learn for developers.
April 14, 2021Tools For Kotlin
Our expert developers use the following kotlin tools for more productivity.
1. IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA has plug-in support for Kotlin. IntelliJ IDEA 15 was the first version to bundle the Kotlin plugin in the IntelliJ Installer, and provide Kotlin support out of the box.
2. JetBrains
JetBrains is a cutting-edge software vendor specializing in the creation of intelligent development
tools, including IntelliJ IDEA.
JetBrains also provides a plugin for Eclipse.
3. Java build tools
Integration with common Java build tools is supported including Apache Maven, Apache Ant, and Gradle.
4. Android Studio
Android Studio provides the fastest tools for building apps on every type of Android device.
Android Studio (based on IntelliJ IDEA) has official support for Kotlin, starting from Android
Studio 3.
5. Emacs
Emacs or EMACS is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual
for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable,
self-documenting, real-time display editor".
Emacs has a Kotlin Mode in its Melpa package repository.
6. Vim
Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved
version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems.
Vim has a plugin maintained on GitHub.
7. Json2Kotlin
online utility for generating kotlin data classes from json model in both plain and gson
seralizations.
Json2Kotlin generates POJO style native Kotlin code for web service response mapping.