When it comes to creating native applications for Android, Java programming language is the first consideration. Undoubtedly, Java is a complicated language and when you run an application on this platform it compiled into a set of instructions known as Bytecodes that runs on a virtual machine. However, with the advancement in technology, there are new programming languages introduced that run on the Java virtual machine. Recently, JetBrains which is also known as IntelliJ IDEA has introduced Kotlin language. Google also endorsed it as an officially supported language that enhances Kotlin’s profile for Android development.
What is Kotlin Language?
Kotlin runs on the JVM and is a statically-typed programming language. This can be easily compiled with the source code of Java and has some amazing features. It is completely supported in Android Studio 3.0 so with this language you can easily create new projects and also add its files to your prevailing project and then convert Java language to Kotlin code. Apart from this, you can also use existing tools of Android Studio with your Kotlin code such as debugging, lint checker, autocomplete, refactoring and more.
Why is Kotlin Best for Android Development?
As Android has become a popular platform, many developers have had no options to the development of Java app. Since Java comes with a bag full of historical baggage, its use is widespread. However, Java 8 solved a few languages issues and these are corrected more with Java 10. To reap maximum benefits from the correction made in these releases, and to use Java 8, it is crucial to set the minimum SDK to Android 24, though, this option is not available for many developers. On the other hand, there are some core tenets that Kotlin lives by and this helps in:
- Lessening the boilerplate amount code you have to write
- Make your code expressive, understandable and readable
- Completely safe to prevent all errors classes like null pointer exceptions.
- Interoperable to use existing structures and libraries of the JVM with 100 percent Java interoperability.
- Flexible for creating Android apps, front end codes, or server-side apps, running in the browser.
Benefits of Using Kotlin of Android Development
When looking for Android development in India, using Kotlin is the wide decision. There are a number of benefits to using this programming language. Let us take a look:
- Performance– Just like Java, Kotlin app runs faster because of bytecode structure. As it supports Kotlin for online jobs, code utilizing lambdas often runs faster as compared to the same code written in Java.
- Compatibility– Kotlin apps can easily run to previous Android devices without any hassle. These are also compatible with JDK 6. The tooling of Kotlin is compatible with the Android build system and also fully supported in Android Studio.
- Footprint– The runtime library of Kotlin is very compact and it can be reduced by using ProGuard. Kotlin runtime adds less than 100k to the .apk file size and adds only some hundred methods.
- Interoperability – Kotlin is completely interoperable with Java, permitting to use all prevailing Android libraries available in Kotlin Applications. It includes Dagger work, so data binding and annotation processing.
- Compilation Time: This also supports effective incremental compilation. So while there’s some extra overhead for clean forms, incremental forms are for the most part as quick or speedier than with Java.
Important Tools Needed for Android Development
The team of Kotlin offers a few tools for android development that is advanced than the standard language features. Many developers use these set of tools during android development in India. These tools are:
- Anko: This is a library that offers set of Kotlin responsive wrapper across the APIs of Android and DSL that helps you to replace your layout .xml files along with Kotlin code.
- Kotlin Android Extensions– These are very effective if you want to dispose of find view id calls in the code and to replace them with synthetic compiler-generated properties
Conclusion
Kotlin support is a prospect for Android developers to use a powerful and modern language. It helps to solve common issues such as source code verbosity and runtime exceptions. This language is easy to start with and can be used with the prevailing project that means that the investment of your prevailing technology and skills are preserved.