Kotlin is a programming language, and specially it is a cross-platform language. From today, we are going to learn about Kotlin language.
Cross-platform
It means that the system or the product can work across multiple platforms or operating system environments. For example, Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint works on both Windows and Macintosh Operating systems.
Statically typed
Statically typed means that the variables used in the program must explicitly be declared along with their types (data type). For example, C, Java, Kotlin and many more are statically typed. Consider the below C programming code for statically typed programming.
General Purpose programming
As the name suggests, it is broadly applicable across all the domains. For example, Java, Python, C, C++ and many more are all general-purpose programming languages.
Why should we choose Kotlin programming language?
01. Kotlin programming language provides a mature environment. When compared to other languages, Kotlin was released after going through a number of revisions and so you will hardly face any issues while working with Kotlin.
02. It was developed keeping an easy transition from Java in mind. Any Java developer can easily understand the code written in Kotlin. The only thing a developer needs to learn is to understand the concepts that Java lacks and Kotlin offers.
03. Kotlin programming language offers an easy setup feature and does not require any additional plugin. Android Studio 3.0 comes with an in-built feature that says, “ Support Kotlin Development”.
04. Kotlin is an open-source language that allows core product development and takes relatively less time to convert Kotlin code to Java.
05. With Kotlin, you can seamlessly integrate with Android Studio and set up any project ready to work in less than 10 minutes.
06. Reduce the boilerplate code that you require frequently and save your time. So, code less, debug less, and thus save time and space.
07. Kotlin enhances performance by increasing the execution speed of the functions compared to Java programming language.
By now, you might have understood that Kotlin is a programming language. It is relatively easy to learn and develop applications with it. Provided that it is highly interoperable with Java, this can be a good option for the Java developers.
Highlight features of Kotlin programming language
Concise code
This feature makes Kotlin one of the favorite languages of developers. Clean and concise code leads to a significant decrease in time for coding, reading and maintaining the code. When compared to Java, Kotlin requires approximately 40% fewer lines of code. Thus, increasing the development speed of your application.
Expressive code
Kotlin is a really simple and understandable language, even a person who has never coded in Kotlin can understand the code. All the functions, data types and other elements are designed in a way that can be interpreted easily and used in the desired way. Thus, Kotlin programming language is said to have expressive code to make things easier for the developers.
Immutability
Immutability is one of the most magical features of Kotlin. It does not allow any object or its variation to undergo any change after they are created. If you wish to make any changes in the case properties after the creation of the object, then you need to make a clone of the object or whichever variable you are wishing to change. Kotlin makes sure that there are no concurrency or synchronization issues due to immutability.
Modern features
Kotlin is ascended from around six different languages and being a fourth-generation language, Kotlin has a number of modern function that can make your programming as swift as possible. Apart from inheriting the exciting feature from the six languages, Kotlin programming language has also introduced features such as null safety, Lambda function, operator overloading, and more. All these functions can increase your productivity in leaps and bounds.
In this article, we learned about the introduction of Kotlin. Don’t worry if you don’t understand, please read again. The next article we will learn about fundamentals of Kotlin.