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I'm sure Kotlin is a good language but as a developer with a big codebase I find it difficult to migrate my Java code to Kotlin or mix both languages in the sam

I'm sure Kotlin is a good language but as a developer with a big codebase I find it difficult to migrate my Java code to Kotlin or mix both languages in the same project. I think I will be confused all the time! If I would be starting with the platform now I'd start with it but now I dont see any reason!

hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
Hit this on an iOS project moving from Objective C to Swift, and it wasn't that hard. We just made the decision that whenever we were doing substantial work in a class, we'd move that class to Swift. It had the side benefit of getting ahead on some tech debt/refactorings because moving to a different language was the right time to make those kinds of investments.
jernfrost 9y ago
Another iOS developer here. Maintained both swift and Objective-C code in multiple apps. Never felt that was a big issue. Perhaps different for us iOs developers as we knew/know it is just a question of time before everybody had migrated to Swift.
Zak 9y ago
It looks to me like Kotlin is enough like enhanced Java that it's pretty painless to extend an existing Java codebase with it. IntelliJ even has automatic translation of Java source files to Kotlin, though I'm sure there are edge cases where that doesn't go well. The benefit is not having to write Java anymore. If you don't mind writing Java then I think you might benefit from exposure to a wider variety of languages. As for getting confused between languages, most of us work in heterogeneous environments these days, even if it's just something like using Python server-side and Javascript client-side. I don't find confusion over the languages to be a significant difficulty there and I don't think it would be with a mixed Java/Kotlin project.
xaduha 9y ago
> I find it difficult to migrate my Java code to Kotlin or mix both languages in the same project. I think I will be confused all the time! Have you actually tried it or you just think you will be confused?
H1Supreme 9y ago
I feel the same way. I may try and implement some Kotlin on my next Android project, but I don't have a compelling reason to merge it into anything existing. Plus, I find Java just fine to work with. Swift was a giant improvement on Obj-c, imo. It was apparent in every way when I first looked at the language. I'm not getting that same vibe here with Kotlin.

hn_throwaway_99 9y ago

Hit this on an iOS project moving from Objective C to Swift, and it wasn't that hard. We just made the decision that whenever we were doing substantial work in a class, we'd move that class to Swift. It had the side benefit of getting ahead on some tech debt/refactorings because moving to a different language was the right time to make those kinds of investments.

jernfrost 9y ago

Another iOS developer here. Maintained both swift and Objective-C code in multiple apps. Never felt that was a big issue. Perhaps different for us iOs developers as we knew/know it is just a question of time before everybody had migrated to Swift.

Zak 9y ago

It looks to me like Kotlin is enough like enhanced Java that it's pretty painless to extend an existing Java codebase with it. IntelliJ even has automatic translation of Java source files to Kotlin, though I'm sure there are edge cases where that doesn't go well. The benefit is not having to write Java anymore. If you don't mind writing Java then I think you might benefit from exposure to a wider variety of languages. As for getting confused between languages, most of us work in heterogeneous environments these days, even if it's just something like using Python server-side and Javascript client-side. I don't find confusion over the languages to be a significant difficulty there and I don't think it would be with a mixed Java/Kotlin project.

xaduha 9y ago

> I find it difficult to migrate my Java code to Kotlin or mix both languages in the same project. I think I will be confused all the time! Have you actually tried it or you just think you will be confused?

H1Supreme 9y ago

I feel the same way. I may try and implement some Kotlin on my next Android project, but I don't have a compelling reason to merge it into anything existing. Plus, I find Java just fine to work with. Swift was a giant improvement on Obj-c, imo. It was apparent in every way when I first looked at the language. I'm not getting that same vibe here with Kotlin.