I tried java once, for a couple of days. So I’m not a java developer, and don’t intend to be one. But I like Kotlin, I think it’s one of the better of the new, multi-paradigm languages, and it opens up the jvm, giving me the opportunity to write applications for Android using libGDX.
But I run into areas where I feel blocked due to lack of java experience - using IntelliJ community edition, or using JUnit, for example. So I use Atom or Android Studio, and wrote my own unit test framework in kotlin…
So I wonder how many are in the same situation, and would like to see less java required? I mean, I get it that Kotlin needs to appeal to existing java developers, but I think it can have broader appeal if there were just less java.
Kotlin doesn’t require you to have expirience with java. But you should at least know java syntax in order to use java libraries. I also have never worked with java, but worked with c++ and php. So i understand java syntax without learning.
It’s not a matter of syntax. It’s about the infrastructure. For example, when I program in Scala using Atom and SBT, I am am blissfully unaware of java. Error messages do not require any understanding of java, nor does using the IDE require it. Programming FSharp using MonoDevelop, I am not required to know anything about CSharp or Visual Basic. In Scala I can consume java libraries without understanding java syntax. Likewise in FSharp, I consume CSharp libraries without any need to understand the CSharp language.
The experience is not the same with Kotlin - maybe it’s just the IntelliJ IDE, which is constantly throwing java references in my face.
Since I do not experience this with Scala, I have decided to use Scala rather than Kotlin, Coming from a jon-java background, it is very easy to use. Kotlin has not been - the syntax yes, it’s simple. But getting a program out? From my viewpoint, the infrastructure is horribly difficult. When I stopped using IntelliJ IDE, I stopped rebooting my desktop several times a day from all the memory leaks.
Could you please clarify which exactly references to Java were confusing to you when you were using Kotlin, and how exactly was your experience different comparing to using Scala?