Abstract:
Kotlin sure has been receiving a lot of buzz lately, is there something to it? Developed by JetBrains, Kotlin has been catching on lately because of its null safety guarantees, functional nature, type inference, full interoperability with Java, cross-platform support, and ease of use with Android and Spring. Is this something you and your team should considering spending time to learn?
One of the most interesting aspects of Kotlin is its design philosophy. Bugs that exist in Java such as NullPointerExceptions are not possible in Kotlin. This mentality of preventing common bugs at the language level exists all through the Kotlin syntax and standard library. Kotlin is also far less verbose than Java, reducing the amount of code you need to read in order to understand it. It also runs on JVMs down to Java 6, without sacrificing features. So if you are in a constrained environment such as Android or an enterprise shop struggling to upgrade, Kotlin might be worth considering.
In this talk, you will learn where Kotlin came from, what its major features are, and why people are using it more and more. At the end of the talk, you will be in a position to make an educated decision about whether Kotlin is right for you!
Bio:
Todd Ginsberg is a Principal Software Developer at Netspend, a payments company in Austin, TX where he is responsible for prototypes, experiments, and proofs of concept. He has been writing in Java since 1995, Kotlin since 2016, and is a board member of the Chicago Java User Group. Todd lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter, and two dogs. When not programming, he enjoys reading, walking/hiking, doughnuts, and Formula 1.
