Introduction to Kotlin Programming

This tutorial will walk you through introduction to kotlin programming, its history, usage and features.

Kotlin History

Kotlin is open source, statically-typed and object oriented programming language that runs on Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is developed by JetBrains, a software development company that has developed a popular IDE IntelliJ. In July 2011 JetBrains revealed about Project Kotlin. The first version of Kotlin was released in February 2016 i.e. Kotlin v1.0.

The language got its name from Kotlin Island. Andrey Breslav, the lead language designer of Kotlin mentioned that idea of giving its name after an island came from Java, as Java was also named after Java Island.

Kotlin Usage

Kotlin can be used for making various types of applications as mentioned below.

Server Side: You can create web applications using Kotlin.

Android: It can be used for creating android applications. At Google I/O 2017, Kotlin was announced as official language for android development apart from Java and C++.

Native: Kotlin code can be converted into native code.

Kotlin Features

Below are some important features of Kotlin language.

Open Source

JetBrains open sourced the kotlin project under the Apache 2 license.

Interoperable

Kotlin is fully interoperable with Java and JavaScript. You just write code in Kotlin and decide what you want to target JVM or JavaScript. Even you can use Kotlin as well as Java in a single project. Its interoperability with Java makes easier for companies to easily migrate from Java to Kotlin.

Concise

Kotlin greatly reduces the amount of boilerplate code. In some situations you have to write almost 30-40% less code in Kotlin as compared to Java.

Safe

As Kotlin runs on JVM platform so it is secure. Kotlin has removed null pointer exception that was a big problem in Java.

Easy to Learn

If you are already familiar with languages like Java, C#, etc then you can easily learn Kotlin.

Why You Should Learn Kotlin?

Between year 2016-2017 Kotlin got so much popularity. Its usage is almost increased by 5 times. It will get huge popularity in future due to its awesome features and also as it is declared as official language for android development by Google. Many big companies like Pinterest, Evernote, Uber, etc have already introduced Kotlin in their projects.

Kotlin Project team is making constant efforts for the improvement of language. So it is the perfect language to learn for near future.

Comment below if you have queries or found any information incorrect in above tutorial for introduction to Kotlin programming language.