Kotlin originated at JetBrains is a programming language for JVM and Android that combines functional and object-oriented programming feature.
Kotlin features:
1. Open source:
Kotlin is an open-source programming language .It also provides a single-click tool using which ,developers can convert existing java code.
2. Java Interoperability:
The best feature of android kotlin is , interoperability with java . This feature had attracted many developers to learn kotlin.
3. Lazy-Loading :
It’s the best feature for the developers who want to reduce the android app start up time.
4. Collection Filtering :
The developers when working with the API need to deal with the collections. But this feature makes easier to filter the resulting list.
5. Enhance Development Speed :
It requires 20% less coding as compared to java .Thus, makes android developers task simpler, quicker and efficient.
6. Null Safety :
It has in-built null safety. It resolves this problem by incorporating inherent null safety. This saves the developers from writing the extra code.
7. No Raw Types :
Kotlin does not allow raw types as it can throw a CastClassException resulting more type-safe code.
8. Avoids Extra Garbage Collection :
It resolves the common problem in android development that adds inefficiency in java code.
9. Extension function :
It helps in building the clean APIs and solved some other problems too.
10. Free :
Its available for free .we don’t need to spend money to use it.
Tools for Android Development :
The set of tools for android development are offered by the Kotlin team :
1. Kotlin Android Extension :
It is a compiler extension that replace the findviewById() in code with the synthetic compiler-generated properties.
2. Anko :
It is a library providing set of Kotlin-friendly wrappers around the Android APIs. It also eliminates few XML related coding.