Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, 2nd Edition

For the More Curious: Function Names in Backticks

Kotlin includes a feature that might, at first glance, seem slightly peculiar: the ability to define or invoke a function named using spaces and other unusual characters, so long as they are surrounded using the backtick symbol, `. For example, you can define a function like this:

    fun `**~prolly not a good idea!~**`() {
        ...
    }

And you could then invoke `**~prolly not a good idea!~**` like this:

    `**~prolly not a good idea!~**`()

Why is this feature included? You should never name a function anything like `**~prolly not a good idea!~**`. (Nor with an emoji. Please backtick responsibly.) There are several valid reasons the function name backticks exist.

The first is to support ...