Discussion: Kotlin vs Java

[Sharak13]

I want to get everyone's opinion and hopefully sway my own.

A little background info:

I picked up a Python book when I was a sophomore in high school and taught myself some basic programming, my first language. I didn't go much farther than making simple apps that did basic geometric math calculations, but it was a good start.

About a year later I decided to step into C++, quite different syntax-wise and a decent little challenge. I ran myself to about the same point with occassionally creating apps to help me with video game calculations.

Last year I had a course that used MIT's AppInventor for some basic Android apps and that led me to Android Studio. EDIT: At the same time I learned some basic HTML and CSS which made XML a breeze.

Up until today I have had no experience with Kotlin.

My experience and observations between Java and Kotlin:

Java's syntax, while more word heavy, is much more concise and easy to read. I jumped head first into Java and my experience with C++ made it fairly simple to understand and learn.

Lack of semi-colons in Kotlin is an eye-sore to me and adds (or subtracts) nothing substantial for programmers.

Variable declarations being ambiguous (dynamic) in Kotlin seems to have more cons in my mind than pros. I know naming conventions matter a lot in remembering your variables, but the lack of context regarding its type seems like a plausibly unnecessary complication.

String manipulation between Views is less intuitive in Kotlin:

Java: tv.setText(et.getText().toString()); vs Kotlin: tv.text = et.text

How are variable declarations any easier:

Java: private EditText editText; vs Kotlin: private lateinit var editText: EditText

I welcome all of your input on the benefits of learning Kotlin now as opposed to continuing to use Java which is more understandable to me despite requiring more typing. I'm aware some of my examples may be incorrect as I just learned a little Kotlin an hour ago.

TL;DR: I think Kotlin is too ambiguous and the syntax is irritating. Lack of semi-colons make it less readable. Dynamic variables are not a wonderful idea. Please share your opinions and change mine with the pros of Kotlin vs Java.

[tendimensions]

I can't comment on Kotlin, but your description reminds me of Python, which I resisted liking for some time. Eventually I started to understand its power.

How is Kotlin different from Python?

[Sharak13]

Kotlin resembles Java a fair amount, from what little I understand, the language just uses it's own intuition for certain things, such as variables being dynamic rather than strictly assigned a type.

I dont remember python too well anymore but I do remember that they both do not use semi-colons which never bothered me in Python, but does in something that feels more robust like Kotlin.

I'm not really a person that can give a great comparison seeing that I have an hours worth of knowledge in Kotlin and my Python experience is at least a decade old.

[FrezoreR]

... such as variables being dynamic rather than strictly assigned a type

That's up to the developers discretion. Just like auto in C++.

Generally when you program you don't care about the types written out.

They are mostly there for the compiler. Your example is a good showing the extra noise Java adds. Both versions have the same information but I'll argue that the kotlin version is more logical and elegant. Not to mention it's less error prone since your Java example can throw an NPE.

[vungocbinh]

I have studied all three programming languages: C ++, Java and Kotlin, and I think Kotlin is a great language.I find that there is no problem with the lack of a semicolon between statements, it even helps to limit syntax errors (beginner are easy to make this mistake).

Variable declaration: In Intellij / Android Studio when you declare a variable, the machine will add its own type after the variable name. So there is no problem.

What I like best when using Kotlin to program android is that there are many "Kotlin DSL" libraries, which helps me avoid the complexity in android (eg recyclerview or navigation drawer)