Kotlin vs Java for Android Development
Since the start of Android Development, Java was the leading language which used by most of the Android Developers, in 2019, Google announced that their preference has changed to a new improved programming language Kotlin. Popularity of Kotlin’s has been significantly increasing over the last few years and it’s has become an one of the most popular programming language.
In this article, we are discussing about what are the differences between Java and Kotlin
What is Kotlin?
Kotlin is an open-source programming language which based on statically typed programming language. Kotlin was developed by JetBrains in 2010. Best thing about Kotlin is, it’s fully interoperable with Java. The main goal of it is to improve and smooth the development process so that the developers can save so much more development time. Kotlin allow developer to write less BoilerPlate code.
Kotlin can be applied for all types of development, for both back-end, front-end, or web. One of Kotlin’s main objectives is to make it accessible on various platforms and make it productive while working with other languages.
At present, more than 60% of Android developers prefer this new programming language. Among the popular cellular applications using Kotlin application development services are Pinterest, Uber, Airbnb, and others.
Kotlin’s one of the main objective was to make it accessible on different platforms. Also to make it more productive when working with other languages. Nowadays, more than 60% of Android developers prefer the Kotlin for mobile developments. Like Pinterest & Uber there are many popular mobile apps which uses Kotlin for mobile app development.
Pros of Kotlin
- Support for Interoperability with different platforms. Kotlin is able to compile to many platforms like JVM, Android, JavaScript, and Native. with Kotlin Multiplatform developers can extract common code base which will target all other platforms once;
- Provide Less code and good readability. Since Kotlin is more expressive and concise than java, there will be less room for errors. Kotlin code has a good readability. Since it wraps large lines codes and syntax in to a few lines of codes it’s very easy to read and solving errors.
- Kotlin offers Null Safety. NullPointerException is one of the mostly seen exception when comes to java or object oriented languages. With Kotlin developers do not need to worry about
- NullPointerException anymore. Kotlin is a null safety programming language and you will never get a null exception.
- No checked exceptions. Normally to handle checked exceptions we have to add a try-catch to the caller of a function since it captures the exceptions of the called method. But most of the time it is useless to have this since it will causes having empty catch blocks which increases verbosity and also hinder navigation of the code
- No raw types. Since Kotilin doesn’t have any raw types there will be no any ClassCastException which causes when you are casting a wrong class type.
- Anko library. With Kotlin developers have access to the Anko library which provides extra tools and resources.
- Supports for modern programming concepts. like higher-order functions, extension functions, delegates and much more to help developers to build clean APIs
Cons of Kotlin
- Developers will have to face a steep learning curve when switching to Kotlin. main reason is because of the language’s concise syntax;
- Slower than the java when comes to compilation in some situations
- Community support is less and still growing when compares to java’s community support
- High declarative language and tends to generate huge amounts of boilerplate sometimes when corresponding JVM byte-code
What Is Java?
Java was developed by Sun Mircosystems back in 1995 and it is a Object Oriented Programming Language. It’s currently heavily use for so many areas like backed developments,hardware programming, mobile developments and etc. Many developers prefer java since it’s more reliable and secure and the same time it has access to large number of other open source tools. Java is a language which matured so much with it’s long history.
Pros of Java
- Easy to understand and learning
- Java apps are lightweight and more compact. Therefore performance wise it’s very optimized
- Since java is a object oriented programming language, it’s allows developers to develop modular apps and allow to work with reusable codes.
- With the long history of Java, it offers so many full pack libraries and tools for android developers. Moreover there is a wide range of community support can be get when comes to solving problems and challenges
Cons of Java
- Since java is a verbose language it requires to write more code, which is a problem when comes to resolving issues and also for the readability of the code.
- Consist with several common exceptions issues and will have to put extra effort to handle those.
Kotlin vs Java: Will Kotlin replace Java ?
Now, this is the most frequently asked question. will Kotlin replace the java ? Answer is No. Kotlin has so many powerful features and so does java. Both of languages are there to treat us with improvised versions. Java and Kotlin can go hand in hand for android developments