Kotlin in Action

Chapter 1. Kotlin: what and why

This chapter covers

• A basic demonstration of Kotlin
• The main traits of the Kotlin language
• Possibilities for Android and server-side development
• What distinguishes Kotlin from other languages
• Writing and running code in Kotlin

What is Kotlin all about? It’s a new programming language targeting the Java platform. Kotlin is concise, safe, pragmatic, and focused on interoperability with Java code. It can be used almost everywhere Java is used today: for server-side development, Android apps, and much more. Kotlin works great with all existing Java libraries and frameworks and runs with the same level of performance as Java. In this chapter, we’ll explore Kotlin’s main traits in detail.

1.1. A taste of Kotlin ...