The release of Kotlin 1.1 brings many welcome improvements to the language: val properties with custom getters can take full advantage of type inference and inlining; they introduced the T.also { it -> } extension method, which is to T.apply {} what T.let { it -> } is to T.run {}; and data classes can inherit from interfaces and base classes, just to name a few. But the two biggest changes are full support for JavaScript as a compilation target (possibly a huge deal, if you’re a full stack dev and reluctantly work with JavaScript), and coroutines(!!!).
Java
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If you’re like me, you’ve grudgingly put up with Java for years, for the sake of getting things done on Android. With Kotlin picking up steam as a viable, modern alternative, things are looking much better for all of us. Whenever possible, I do all my Android work in Kotlin.
To reap the fullest benefits of Kotlin, though, we can’t just fall back on old habits; it’s very easy to write code in a familiar Java style. In fact, allowing this was a design goal of Kotlin, to make it easier to transition between languages. But the real power and beauty of Kotlin is where it differs from Java, sometimes drastically. Let’s take a look at some examples of code patterns I’ve run across in production code, and different ways we can improve upon them.
Spread the good word, friend:
Some of you may have noticed that AndroidStudio really wants you to develop for Lollipop–so much so that if you try to create a new project for any of the 4.x versions, it will be broken out of the box. Now, I’m not sure how widespread this problem is, so as a disclaimer, I’ll say I have this problem every time, with the most up-to-date version of AndroidStudio from the Beta channel, on my machine. Here’s some relevant system configuration data:
- Mac OS X 10.8.5
- AndroidStudio 1.1.0
- javac 1.6.0_65
- Android SDK Build Tools 21.1.2 (with a few older versions still installed)
AndroidStudio 1.1.0
