Java Vs Kotlin

Java vs Kotlin

When Google announced Kotlin as the next official Android programming language, its popularity increased by more than sixfold in some regions. The language has attracted the attention of major brands such as Amazon, Netflix, and Pinterest and has made its way into the programming world's elite. Since then, it has been steadily gaining ground. Some predicted Java's demise, at least on mobile devices. We conducted some research to determine how those two languages stack up in terms of Android application development. Discover how Java spawned Kotlin, their relationship, code line stance, communities, and performance issues in our step-by-step comparison.

What is Java

Java is a statically typed object-oriented programming language and computing platform. Sun Microsystems released it in 1995. (later acquired by Oracle Corporation). Today, the majority of Java's major components are open source, and those that are not have open alternatives.

In 2006, Sun, the original developers of Java, released a large portion of it under the GNU General Public License. Java is used to develop Android applications, server applications, web applications, websites, and embedded systems.

It is particularly popular in the development of financial software.

What is Kotlin

Kotlin is a statically typed programming language for the Java Virtual Machine, Android, JavaScript, and Native platforms. Kotlin is a free and open source language that was developed under the Apache 2.0 license. On GitHub, the source code is available. The language incorporates elements of both object-oriented and functional programming. You can use it in either OO or FP mode, or a combination of the two.

Kotlin is supported by all major Java integrated development environments (IDEs), including IntelliJ IDEA (from JetBrains), Android Studio, Eclipse, and NetBeans. It can be used for a wide variety of applications, including server-side, client-side web, and Android.

Kotlin/Native, which is currently in development, will support additional platforms, including embedded systems, macOS, and iOS.

Java to Kotlin story

Although Kotlin v1.0 was released on February 15, 2016, the programming language's history dates all the way back to 2011. JetBrains created Kotlin to address their practical needs. Although 70% of the company's products were built in Java, the company quickly recognized its shortcomings - most notably excessive verbosity. They desired a language that was Java-compatible, as rewriting everything in a new language appeared to be an impossibility. They began experimenting with Scala but were dissatisfied with the results. That was the birth of the concept of a new language, Kotlin.

Java vs Kotlin: Adoption Costs

Because Kotlin is open source, you can use it for free. You can begin exploring the language by simply translating it from Java to Kotlin using a Java-to-Kotlin converter. Kotlin is compatible with all Java libraries and frameworks, including those that make annotation processing a requirement. Additionally, it integrates flawlessly with development tools such as Gradle, Maven, Ant, or Kobalt. All that is required is the installation of a Kotlin plugin.

Java vs Kotlin: Painless transition

Kotlin was built with a strong emphasis on interoperability with Java, its elder sibling. This means that you can convert any Java code to Kotlin or vice versa without affecting its functionality.

There may be some features for which you prefer Kotlin and others for which Java appears to be the better option. Because both Kotlin and Java code compile to JVM bytecode, end users will be unable to distinguish between the two.

Java vs Kotlin: Community support

Java is a programming language with a history spanning more than two decades. As a result, an unfathomable number of Java projects have been implemented, as well as an impressive community. At the time of writing, GitHub returned 801,248 results for the "Java" query.

The larger the community, the more likely it is that someone has already left advice on the subject you're looking for. This, in turn, makes the process of developing a language easier and more enjoyable.

Despite its increasing popularity, Kotlin's community remains small in comparison to Java's. GitHub returned only 33,182 results with the tag "Kotlin."

As a result, there are few tools for honing skills and few Kotlin experts to consult (at the time of writing there were 361 job results for "Android Kotlin Developer" www.indeed.com compared to only 2 resumes).

Java vs Kotlin: Market situation

Java has a sizable influence on the development world, as evidenced by the reputable Tiobe Index. Java retained its number one position in July 2019 compared to July 2018. Kotlin, despite its youth, has cracked the top 50 rankings, landing at number 43.

Kotlin was promoted to Google's "first-class" programming languages for Android app development during the company's I/O 2017 conference. It brought together the venerable Java and C++. The announcement stoked interest in Kotlin, resulting in its meteoric rise in popularity.

Java vs Kotlin: Performance & compile time

According to JetBrains, a Kotlin application runs as fast as a comparable Java application, owing to the very similar bytecode structure. Nonetheless, Kotlin's support for inline functions enables lambdas-based code to run faster than Java-based code.

Java compiles 10-15% faster for clean builds, according to the tests conducted. However, for incremental compilation, Kotlin produces results that are identical to or slightly better than Java. Reduced compile time results in less time spent by a developer on non-productive tasks.

Conclusion

Kotlin is not a revolutionary language, but rather a pragmatic extension of Java. They are structurally similar and can coexist peacefully within the same project. However, because Kotlin is a new start in some ways, it incorporates a number of cutting-edge features. Java, on the other hand, is like an old friend who has stood the test of time.