Читать книгу Programming Kotlin Applications - Бретт Мак-Лахлин, Brett McLaughlin - Страница 17

Kotlin is an open-source programming language. It is, most notably, statically typed and object-oriented. Statically typed means that variables have types when you write your code and compile it, and those types are fixed. That also implies that Kotlin must be compiled, which is also true. Object-oriented means it has classes and inheritance, making it a familiar language for Java and C++ developers.

Kotlin was in fact created by a group of developers that worked on the JetBrains IDE, and it feels very much like a natural evolution of Java. It's been around in early form since 2011, but was officially released in 2016. That means it's new, which is good, but also means it's new, which at times can be bad. Kotlin is modern, can run inside a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and can even be compiled to JavaScript—a cool feature we'll look at a little later.

It's also really important to note that Kotlin is a fantastic language for writing Android apps. In fact, many of its enhancements to Java reflect an Android usage. That said, even if you never intended to write a mobile app, you'll find Kotlin a welcome addition to your arsenal, and well suited for server-side programming.