Getting Started with Kotlin
by Kevin Jones
Kotlin is a lanuage that compiles to Java bytecode and runs on the JVM; it's designed to address many of Java's shortcomings. This course aims to give you an introduction to Kotlin to get you developing applications quickly.
What you'll learn
Java as a programming language is almost 20 years old. Java hasn't changed a great deal over those 20 years, which is both a strength and a weakness. Java is very verbose, with lots of ceremony needed to do even the simplest thing. Enter Kotlin, a more modern version of Java. It adopts functional ideas such as immutability and first-class functions, out of the box, and it is also object-oriented. It aims to reduce the 'noise' that Java has and to make programs more concise and readable. This course, Getting Started with Kotlin, introduces you to Kotlin and will get you up to speed very quickly so that you can adopt this language in your projects. First, you'll learn how to install the Kotlin tools and set up the IDEs to use Kotlin, as well as learn some basic language syntax. Next, you'll learn how to start using the object-oriented features of Kotlin. You'll finish the course by learning how to use the programming features of Kotlin, and also how to write and run tests in Kotlin. By the end this course, you'll have a strong foundation of knowledge on basic syntax and features of Kotlin.
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.
