Digital applications company shifts from Java to Kotlin for App development

A global digital applications company are switching from Java to Kotlin for their mobile application, specifically their android app and require Kotlin training for their engineers.

Kotlin is a programming language for the Java Virtual machine and thus is used as a replacement language wherever Java is being utilised (i.e. web development, data science, etc.). Kotlin is mainly used for Android app development having been designed for that reason and has now got the full backing from Google in 2019 as the preferred language for app development on the platform, a major reason for the businesses shift. Kotlin can also now be used as a development language for iOS using Kotlin Native.

Kotlin has become the preferred language for various reasons:

• Kotlin allows the writing of less code through the conciseness of their syntax, reducing Java code that could be several lines long, into a single more readable line. Rough estimates place the reduction from Java to Kotlin to be around 40%. The company desires this because it means that fewer bugs will occur through messy code, it is also easier to maintain and thus less money is spent on development
• Kotlin has an extremely strong community, which is only strengthened by ties to global brands such as Google and Amazon. This creates fantastic documentation, which can be used to aid developers after completing the training course.
• Kotlin also avoids null point exceptions, which is important for companies such as the client who work with large codebases that do contain them.
• Finally, since Kotlin is compatible with Java, the transition can be gradual changing section by section of the codebase, which is beneficial to the company because it can continue to provide services whilst making changes

JBI organised a tailor made 3 day course for the company with the collaboration of a knowledgeable and engaging instructor. The android labs were especially important to the company to adopt the skills learnt and put them into practice, whilst changes were made to make them more realistic for the working purposes of the delegates. Other features of the course included:

• Learning the basics of Kotlin and the Object-oriented programming
• Exploring and utilising functions and extensions
• Understanding domain specific language and reflection
• Utilising the interoperability of Kotlin and Java

There were around 10 delegates who took part in the training course, all of whom were software engineers. The course was a success, relayed to us via feedback forms and comments left by the delegates:

“The tailoring of the content to our needs was well received, the depth of knowledge to dive into details and be able to explore and rationalise in discussions is something I've not experienced in such courses before and a major credit to the instructor.” JW, Principle Architect

“The quality of the training was extremely high, and the coverage of topics was broad and applicable to what was required.” SJ, Principle Engineer

For further information on Kotlin courses, please see below:

Kotlin 

Kotlin Beyond the Basics
Kotlin best practices 

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