Kotlin Fundamentals
by Kevin Jones
This course teaches the Kotlin programming language, and progresses through to more advanced topics including Kotlin’s object-oriented nature and effectively using functions
What you'll learn
Kotlin is the language of choice for anyone developing Android applications and is one of the most important general purpose languages on the Java Virtual Machine. In this course, Kotlin Fundamentals, you’ll learn to program in Kotlin. First, you’ll explore the fundamentals of the language such as loops, ranges, and expressions. Next, you’ll discover how to write object-oriented code using classes, interfaces, data classes, and sealed classes. Finally, you’ll learn how to use functions throughout your code, for example when working on collections and sequences and using lambdas as callbacks. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of Kotlin programming needed to develop Kotlin applications both on the server and on the client.
About the author
A long time ago in a university far, far away Kevin fell in love with programming. Initially on the university's DEC20 computer doing BASIC and Pascal and a little bit of Fortran. His first job had him writing batch PL/1 on an IBM mainframe where he also discovered the arcane delights of JCL. He soon realized the multiuser systems were not for him after discovering the delights of dBase IV on IBM PCs. From here it was all downhill as he became addicted to C and the Windows API. Just missing out ... moreon coding for Windows 1, he did code for the other 16 bit versions of Windows, 2 and 3, including the various network-ready versions. He still remembers the awkwardness of having to carry an IBM Token Ring MAU with him wherever he went.
After trying to pretend that Windows and C were really object oriented he decided that it would be better to learn C++. It was around this point that he realized that as well as writing code for a living he could be paid for telling people how to write code for a living. He taught Windows, MFC and C++ for a UK training company before his spirit was broken on the back of the OLE support in MFC when he finally stepped away from the nightmare of unmanaged code to the nirvana of the managed runtime called Java.
It was at this time that he spoke at several JavaOne conferences usually on the subject of Servlets, JavaServer Pages and tag libraries. After buying the Sun employees copious amounts of Apple Martini Kevin was invited onto the expert groups for the Servlet and JSP specifications.
Oh, how he laughed when .Net appeared and the same arguments raged about non-deterministic destruction and garbage collection that were now so old hat in the Java world. He finally got his hands dirty in C# and .Net about eight years ago, again working in the web tier and hating every minute of the using the monstrosity that was and is ASP.Net Web Forms. It wasn't until MVC appeared that he finally felt he had come home to Microsoft.
Now of course MVC is so last year and Kevin is focusing more and more on rich clients using JavaScript and tools such as Knockout and AngularJS. He believes that JavaScript is the best thing since, well, JavaScript.
He still retains his passion for developing and teaching; spending about a quarter of the year doing the latter and most of the time doing the former.
When not stuck in front of a computer you can find him: with his nose in a book, a good one preferably, but almost any book would do; watching a film; walking; running; or annoying his wife by watching sports on television.
