Welcome to this first chapter of a course, in which undoubtedly, we will learn both about Kotlin. In this series of entries, my intention is not to copy and paste, I would like to debate and learn from each other.
In this chapter we will see what Kotlin is and why we are at the perfect time to start.
What is Kotlin?
Kotlin is a programming language created in 2010 by Jetbrains, the company that created one of the most famous IDE for java in the intellij world.
Kotlin is an alternative to Java, which supplies several of the most common problems that programmers encounter in that language. For that reason and to replace more deficiencies of other programming languages kotlin was developed.
Why use Kotlin?
I imagine that it will be one of the questions that you will be asking the most as you read this article, and the truth is that there is no magic answer that tells you that this will be a success or not, so I am going to talk to you about why point of view worth it.
Null insurance: One of the biggest problems of using java are the NullPointerException. This causes a lot of problems when developing. With Kotlin we will forget this because it forces us to take into account the possible null.
Save code: With kotlin you can avoid many lines of code compared to other languages. Imagine doing a POJO (Plain Old Java Objects) in a single line instead of 50-100.
Functional programming features: Kotlin is developed so that we work both object-oriented, functional (and even mix), which will give us much more freedom and the possibility of using features such as higher-order functions, function types and lambdas.
Easy to use: Being inspired by already existing languages such as Java, C # or Scala, the learning curve will be quite simple.
It's time: A few days ago in the Google I / O 2017, Kotlin has officially become an Android language, so right now is the boom. If you are fast, if you work and get involved you can dedicate yourself professionally to Kotlin, and more now that very important companies are beginning to use the language (Pinterest, Gradle, Evernote, Uber, etc).
Conclusion
If there are good times to get on the wave, this is a great one. Kotlin has entered with a lot of force, not only to face Java, but to beat him. In a year from now, everything points to a profile that is highly demanded by recruiters on Linkedin, and due to the novelty of the topic there are currently very few programmers who control Kotlin. If you are looking to improve, update and not be outdated and to become a benchmark in the industry, join me in this course that I will develop and become a professional. Now or never.
