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Kotlin on iOS is statically compiled and interops with Swift/ObjC natively. Don't think KMP on iOS is even running a VM like Flutter has to with Dart? https://

Kotlin on iOS is statically compiled and interops with Swift/ObjC natively. Don't think KMP on iOS is even running a VM like Flutter has to with Dart? https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html

deleted 1y ago
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oblio 1y ago
How solid is Kotlin on iOS?
- tomovo 1y ago
  If you mean Kotlin Multiplatform, it works pretty well. Not easy to debug, the GC is a bit weaker than the Android implementation and optimized builds can get crazy slow as the app grows. The interface uses auto-generated ObjC headers which are very verbose. Native Swift API is in beta. Overall still worth it for a commercial app, I think.
  - mr7uca 1y ago
    incremental native builds are getting better at least
  - afro88 1y ago
    We use it in my team and it works well enough, but iOS is a bit second class citizen. Everything translates to Obj-C (NSObject at the root), so even something as simple as a data class becomes NSObjects with a cumbersome dev experience rather than a native swift enum. We're looking forward to native swift export to go stable - it's currently experimental / beta.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - ignoramous 1y ago
      Thanks. > looking forward to native swift export to go stable - it's currently experimental What are the timelines given for a stable release? And when it does, what else would you say are the next big things annoying/missing in terms of devex?
      - afro88 1y ago
        Nothing certain, but I reckon it'll be a while: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/components-stability.html#stability-levels-explained https://kotlinlang.org/docs/components-stability.html#stabil... The other big problem is debugging. It's impossible to breakpoint kotlin when debugging from swift, so some bugs that are realised only from the swift client side can be tricky and time consuming to fix.
randyrand 1y ago
Dart runs natively. It only uses a VM in dev builds for hot reload. In fact, you can even link native frameworks into your Dart code. [1] https://dart.dev/overview#native-platform https://dart.dev/overview#native-platform [2] https://dart.dev/interop/c-interop https://dart.dev/interop/c-interop
vips7L 1y ago
I don’t think anything runs in a vm on iOS since they don’t let you JIT compile code. Unless they’re doing pure interpretation, but I can’t imagine that being good for performance.

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oblio 1y ago

How solid is Kotlin on iOS?

tomovo 1y ago
If you mean Kotlin Multiplatform, it works pretty well. Not easy to debug, the GC is a bit weaker than the Android implementation and optimized builds can get crazy slow as the app grows. The interface uses auto-generated ObjC headers which are very verbose. Native Swift API is in beta. Overall still worth it for a commercial app, I think.
- mr7uca 1y ago
  incremental native builds are getting better at least
- afro88 1y ago
  We use it in my team and it works well enough, but iOS is a bit second class citizen. Everything translates to Obj-C (NSObject at the root), so even something as simple as a data class becomes NSObjects with a cumbersome dev experience rather than a native swift enum. We're looking forward to native swift export to go stable - it's currently experimental / beta.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - ignoramous 1y ago
    Thanks. > looking forward to native swift export to go stable - it's currently experimental What are the timelines given for a stable release? And when it does, what else would you say are the next big things annoying/missing in terms of devex?
    - afro88 1y ago
      Nothing certain, but I reckon it'll be a while: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/components-stability.html#stability-levels-explained https://kotlinlang.org/docs/components-stability.html#stabil... The other big problem is debugging. It's impossible to breakpoint kotlin when debugging from swift, so some bugs that are realised only from the swift client side can be tricky and time consuming to fix.

randyrand 1y ago

Dart runs natively. It only uses a VM in dev builds for hot reload. In fact, you can even link native frameworks into your Dart code. [1] https://dart.dev/overview#native-platform https://dart.dev/overview#native-platform [2] https://dart.dev/interop/c-interop https://dart.dev/interop/c-interop

vips7L 1y ago

I don’t think anything runs in a vm on iOS since they don’t let you JIT compile code. Unless they’re doing pure interpretation, but I can’t imagine that being good for performance.