…from a Java developer's point of view

Marc Reichelt

@mreichelt

Java, 2019

Java gets the job done™

Lots of developers

Write Once, Run Anywhere

Lots of libraries and tools

Good IDEs (IntelliJ, Eclipse, …)

Easier than other (older) programming languages

Strong ecosystem

Java: The bad stuff

No true protection against NullPointerExceptions

Data classes only with bytecode manipulators + IDE Plugins

Easy features aren’t easy - ever tried to read a file into a String or bytearray?

Best practices not built into language - Singletons, getters+setters, lazy object creation, Builder Patterns…

Checked exceptions

Oracle (license politics)

Write Once, Run Anywhere - what about iOS & the web?

Legacy: “Forced” OOP, C-style switch, Integer vs. int, equals vs. ==Functional Programming,

retrofittedUpgradability

Concurrent Programming: heavyweight threads

What If?

● …we would rethink Java today, with our learnings on Java legacy?

● …easy to learn for Java developers and fresh coders?

● …with excellent IDE support?

● …combined with the best features of other languages?

● …truly running on all systems?

● …coding would suddenly make fun again?

● …supported by a strong and friendly community?

● …compatible with the JVM?

Kotlin: A little bit of history

● It’s an island as well

● 2011: Created by JetBrains○ They looked for a new language, but Scala had a slow compiler

○ Java didn’t make it due to backward-compatibility

● 2016: Kotlin 1.0

● 2017: Google announced official Kotlin support

● 2019: Google announces ‘Kotlin first’

★ 2.2 million Kotlin developers in 2018 (Java: 7.1m)

That’s nice, Marc!Now let’s see the

good stuff…

©ite

ratec

©ite

ratec

13

// Java

Demo time!

One more thing…

JVM LLVM JS

…from a Java developer's point of view

Marc Reichelt

@mreichelt