As the technology is evolving, developers are finding new ways to make apps highly responsive, scalable, and lightweight. Google has been opting for different programming languages for Android mobile app development, but for the past three years, it is using Kotlin. In a March 2020 announcement, Google announced that Kotlin is the primary language for coding Android apps.
Kotlin is an advanced platform that works on JVM or Java Virtual Machine. It combines two different programming approaches- object-oriented coding and functional operability. Using Kotlin, one can remove the repetitive instantiation of variables in Java code. Moreover, the platform provides more flexibility in classes, functional modules, operators, and other features. Due to the flexibility and lightweight nature of Kotlin, it has become the new favorite of app developers for Android OS.
Is Kotlin Ideal for Developing Android Applications?
Yes, definitely Kotlin is ideal for developing Android applications. It is based on JVM. Hence, any developer proficient in using Java can easily learn the variants of Kotlin and implement the same for app development.
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No use of Getters and Setters
In Java programming, getters and Setters are used to declare the constructor variables used in the programming. These variables are used for getting input from the user or storing a result of the functions.
To be honest, getters and Setters complicate the programming too much. For small programs, it might seem easier to declare the modular variables beforehand. But when you have to handle large codes as in enterprises, getters and setters aren’t perfect.
This nuisance has been removed from Kotlin. Here, the data variables can be added right in front of the class names. Once added, these will be known as model classes. When you have to call a particular variable, you can call the model class as per the concerned member.
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Use of compact programming syntaxes
One of the main drawbacks of Java is the complexity of the codes. For developing one particular functionality, a developer has to use multiple nested loops, print functions, nested modules, and so on.
In fact, multiple objects are also instantiated, which decreases the compilation speed. However, with Kotlin, you can avoid the hassles of designing longer and complex codes.
First of all, you won’t have to write long variable names while object instantiation. Similarly, the functional modules can be compressed with a minimal number of loops.
Due to the enhanced usability of Kotlin programming, it has become the most preferred language for Android app development. So when you hire an android app developer, make sure they are proficient with the Kotlin language.
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Standard libraries for functional extensions
While working in Java, one will realize that codes need to be written manually to extend the functions. You can only extend the library functions that are stored in the Java library like Util function, I/O functions, and so on.
But when we are talking about Kotlin, the library functions for extensions are huge. Any manually written functional modules in the code can be extended using the library functions with ease.
This will help the developers to shorten the codes and make them lightweight. Finding errors and bugs won’t be a problem anymore with Kotlin’s extendibility feature.
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Offers immutability of objects
When writing a program in Java, you will often see that the declared objects can be muted. This means you can change the data type of the objects or the variables used to define them.
On a smaller scale, this might not appear as much of a hassle. But when you are writing long codes or dependable programs, changing an object in one package will affect other linked packages also.
For this reason, Kotlin has introduced the immutability feature. With the help of this, the objects, once instantiated, cannot be transformed into another datatype.
For example, if ob1 is of int data type, it will remain the same throughout the program and other linked packages.
Why is using Kotlin suitable for Android app development?
- With Kotlin, the codes can be written in fewer lines as compared to Java.
- You can easily avoid silly mistakes like null pointer exceptions, compilation errors, object datatype mismatch, and others.
- With Kotlin, functional programming has become easier. Different modules can be independently written for different app functionality,
- It is an open-source platform that can make the codes lightweight and flexible.
In the End
Kotlin is a very expressive and simple programming language that minimizes coding errors and easily integrates into existing apps. Kotlin’s interoperability, structured concurrency, safer coding, and concise format make it every Android developer’s favorite. Most Android libraries and tools are Kotlin first now, i.e. they are designed keeping Kotlin developers in mind, and evidently, it makes it Google’s preferred language.
However, Kotlin has its syntaxes a little different from Java. So, it’s better to hire android app developer who is proficient in Kotlin.
