What is Kotlin?

Question

What is Kotlin? I have read a few things about it and searched it up and what I have figured out so far is that it is a programming language that runs on a "Java virtual machine". What are the differences and similarities between Java and Kotlin? Is one better than the other in anyone's opinion? Also what does it mean for it to run on the "Java virtual machine"?

Answer 1

As you may know, Google can't modify the structure of Java, and this is why they created Kotlin on top of a programming language that has a great architecture but could be more efficient on regard of apps development.

Simply put, Kotlin does the exact same thing as Java does but with less code. An example could be when you instantiate a View (everything is a View for Android), every View (labels, buttons, text holders etc) have a unique id. In Java you have to declare an object of that View and then you have to instantiate it by pointing to the id of that View, but in Kotlin you don't have to declare or instantiate, you just literally use the id of that View like an instantiated object, calling the methods of that View normally. Hopes this helps Cayne.

Answer 2

Roberto, thank you for your help and in-depth explanation about Kotlin. I'm thankful you spent your time to help me out.

Answer 3

This is for the differences:
https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/comparison-to-java.html

Answer 4

Thanks for explaining the differences Colin 🙄