Kotlin has become one of the most popular languages among Android developers in recent years. It has also gained popularity among web developers. This is because of its relationship with Java and its similarity to other programming languages such as JavaScript and C#. It’s not a requirement that developers have knowledge of Kotlin. There are several reasons why you may want to hire a Kotlin developer to work on your team. This is especially if you’re looking to build an app in Android or the JVM space.
In this article, we’ll cover the top five things you should know before you hire Kotlin developers.
5 Things to Know Before Hiring a Kotlin Developer
1) What is Kotlin?
Kotlin is a statically-typed programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine and also can be compiled to JavaScript source code or uses the LLVM compiler infrastructure. It was created by JetBrains in 2010 and was officially released in February 2016.
Kotlin’s primary development is from a team of programmers at JetBrains and contributors outside the company. The lead designers are Andrey Breslav (who leads language development) and Dmitry Jemerov (the lead for tooling). Brian Ballard, Jean-Michel Dault, Anconina, Marcello Nuccio, Roman Elizarov, Valentin Kasasciyanov, Vít Ondruch and others have made significant contributions as well.
Google announced support for Kotlin on Android in May 2017. The stated goals of Kotlin are:
- Interoperability with Java,
- Fewer syntactic ambiguities than Java
- Support for mainstream programming patterns
- Safety without sacrificing expressiveness
- Conciseness without sacrificing readability
- Feature availability comparable to competing languages such as C# and Scala.
2) Who Developed Kotlin?
First, let’s talk about who developed Kotlin. JetBrains originally created Kotlin for its proprietary software products, but then decided to release it as an open-source programming language. This was in October of 2011, and it’s been taking off ever since! From there, Google took notice of how quickly developers were adopting Kotlin and decided to incorporate it into Android development efforts.
In February 2017, Google announced that starting with version 1.0 of Android Studio, Kotlin would be included by default. It was also added as an officially supported language for writing applications on the server side (making Spring Framework integration very easy).
Today, Googlers like Mark Murphy and Chet Haase work full-time on making sure that Kotlin is powerful enough to solve complex problems without sacrificing readability or brevity—all while preserving compatibility with Java projects where possible.
3) When Should I Use It?
When you have a new development project and need to decide whether you want it built in Java or Kotlin. Both languages are suited for different kinds of projects, and knowing which one is best for your needs can save you time and money later on.
As with most programming languages, there’s no one clear-cut answer to that question. Instead, there are several points of comparison between Java and Kotlin that will help you make an informed decision about what language would work best for your project.
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4) Is Android Studio Compatible With It?
Kotlin has been designed from scratch to be compatible with existing Java code. It’s also very easy to learn if you have Java experience, and many things you know about Java will apply directly in Kotlin. Android Studio is fully compatible with Kotlin, so if you have an Android developer on your team who wants to start using it, it won’t be difficult for them at all. If they don’t have time to learn Kotlin right away, there are plenty of other ways to incorporate it into your app as well.
If your app uses third-party libraries that are still in Java, you can use Anko—an extension of Kotlin—to easily create DSLs that sit atop those libraries. You can use IntelliJ IDEA (the IDE) or Gradle (the build tool) without even knowing what they do; they just work!
5) Why Choose A Native App Over Web And Hybrid Apps?
The biggest reasons you’d choose to build your app natively are speed and performance. A native app is programmed specifically for each operating system, meaning it has all of that platform’s features built-in. As far as performance goes, native apps run much faster than hybrid or web apps (since they aren’t running within a browser). Depending on your application, being able to respond quickly can mean all the difference between an outstanding experience and losing potential customers.
5 Technical Skills You Should Look For In A Native App Developer:
There are numerous skills that come into play when building native mobile applications. In terms of platforms, iOS developers will generally have more Objective-C experience and Android developers will be versed in Java. Both platforms have their strengths. So, if you want to learn about both before hiring a developer, we suggest seeking out someone who can do both.
If you want something specific in your next hire, look for these five technical skills.
- Don’t Risk Your Mobile Success By Skimping On Quality Developers. If there’s one thing worse than launching an ineffective campaign through social media, it’s paying for a full development cycle only to end up with something that falls flat on its face.
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- When trying to decide whether an individual candidate is worth bringing on board, keep an eye out for these warning signs.
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