5 ms·

The main reason for Kotlin's recent popularity is from its use on Android. Not that long ago it wasn't all that popular while many jvm better-than-java language

The main reason for Kotlin's recent popularity is from its use on Android. Not that long ago it wasn't all that popular while many jvm better-than-java languages were competing. Same for Go. If a substantial amount of Android (or other/cross-platform) dev happens with Flutter, Dart will become just as common. As a language, it's not great, but it's also not bad either.

pjmlp 4y ago
Except the little detail that Android team couldn't care less about Dart/Flutter, it isn't even part of the official Android SDK. Jake Wharton has a few rants about the Fluter/Dart vs Android politics.
lchengify 4y ago
It's true that Kotlin wasn't a breakout success 5 years ago. However, I would argue Kotlin's design decisions made it destined for its current success, whereas Dart has not. The most obvious of this was same-build compatibility with Java. Mixing Kotlin and Java made it super easy to switch, and made using it a no-brainer vs other solutions. Android Studio also has a button that auto-converts Java to Kotlin, so in many cases a wholesale rewrite isn't even necessary. At this point, Kotlin has also become a goto for backend Java for stream processing and other open-source JVM projects. It's rapidly replacing things like Scala for Flink, as an example. Maybe Dart survives by the sheer force of will of Flutter, but I don't think there's a chance it catches Kotlin.
- ShadowBanThis01 4y ago
  Kotlin also seems very similar to Swift, which is handy. The last time I saw the topic debated on this site, the consensus was that native is still the best way to go when developing mobile apps, even when you have to support both iOS and Android.
  - karmakaze 4y ago
    By native on Android you mean the 'widgets' APIs meaning Kotlin is fine (not the NDK with C/C++) I assume.

5 ms·

The main reason for Kotlin's recent popularity is from its use on Android. Not that long ago it wasn't all that popular while many jvm better-than-java language

by karmakaze 4y ago

pjmlp 4y ago
Except the little detail that Android team couldn't care less about Dart/Flutter, it isn't even part of the official Android SDK. Jake Wharton has a few rants about the Fluter/Dart vs Android politics.
lchengify 4y ago
It's true that Kotlin wasn't a breakout success 5 years ago. However, I would argue Kotlin's design decisions made it destined for its current success, whereas Dart has not. The most obvious of this was same-build compatibility with Java. Mixing Kotlin and Java made it super easy to switch, and made using it a no-brainer vs other solutions. Android Studio also has a button that auto-converts Java to Kotlin, so in many cases a wholesale rewrite isn't even necessary. At this point, Kotlin has also become a goto for backend Java for stream processing and other open-source JVM projects. It's rapidly replacing things like Scala for Flink, as an example. Maybe Dart survives by the sheer force of will of Flutter, but I don't think there's a chance it catches Kotlin.
- ShadowBanThis01 4y ago
  Kotlin also seems very similar to Swift, which is handy. The last time I saw the topic debated on this site, the consensus was that native is still the best way to go when developing mobile apps, even when you have to support both iOS and Android.
  - karmakaze 4y ago
    By native on Android you mean the 'widgets' APIs meaning Kotlin is fine (not the NDK with C/C++) I assume.