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Kotlin does not produce machine executables. Kotlin produces JVM bytecode and JVM languages have not caught the attention of HN folks very frequently. Clojure c

by distcs 3y ago

Kotlin does not produce machine executables. Kotlin produces JVM bytecode and JVM languages have not caught the attention of HN folks very frequently. Clojure comes up from time to time but I am sure that's because it is a Lisp which is discussed favorably by HN folks. Both Zig and Rust fill important gaps in the programming languages. If someone wants a better C, they look at Zig. Zig is simple like C. It has less concepts, good memory management story and protects the developer from shooting their foot. If someone wants a better C++, they look at Rust. Rust is complex but has strong memory safety guarantees. Both Zig and Rust are great alternatives for C and C++ both of which have been used extensively in the IT. What gap is Kotlin fulfilling? What is Kotlin doing so well that another language cannot do today?

re-thc 3y ago
> Kotlin does not produce machine executables. Kotlin produces JVM bytecode Strictly speaking - not true. JVM languages via GraalVM have been able to produce native executables for quite a while already. A lot of frameworks / libraries support this too.
wsgeorge 3y ago
> What gap is Kotlin fulfilling? Being a more fun-to-use Java? That's probably a big reason why it's done so well on the Android front AFAICT. But as you said, maybe JVM isn't that hot on HN > Kotlin does not produce machine executables. I haven't used KN before [0], but it does seem to do this. Overall, maybe Kotlin's "problem" is that it is tied to one ecosystem (native mobile development) which isn't as popular as web is. [0] https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html
- distcs 3y ago
  > Being a more fun-to-use Java? That's fine. What I meant earlier was that both Zig and Rust are filling a very important technical gap. Both Zig and Rust are solving memory safety issues in different ways. Java is already a memory safe language so the motivation to move from Java to Kotlin is not as strong as the motivation to move from C to Zig or C++ to Rust.

by distcs 3y ago

re-thc 3y ago

> Kotlin does not produce machine executables. Kotlin produces JVM bytecode Strictly speaking - not true. JVM languages via GraalVM have been able to produce native executables for quite a while already. A lot of frameworks / libraries support this too.

wsgeorge 3y ago

> What gap is Kotlin fulfilling? Being a more fun-to-use Java? That's probably a big reason why it's done so well on the Android front AFAICT. But as you said, maybe JVM isn't that hot on HN > Kotlin does not produce machine executables. I haven't used KN before [0], but it does seem to do this. Overall, maybe Kotlin's "problem" is that it is tied to one ecosystem (native mobile development) which isn't as popular as web is. [0] https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html

distcs 3y ago
> Being a more fun-to-use Java? That's fine. What I meant earlier was that both Zig and Rust are filling a very important technical gap. Both Zig and Rust are solving memory safety issues in different ways. Java is already a memory safe language so the motivation to move from Java to Kotlin is not as strong as the motivation to move from C to Zig or C++ to Rust.