Book Image

Introduction to JVM Languages

Book Image

Introduction to JVM Languages

Overview of this book

Anyone who knows software development knows about the Java Virtual Machine. The Java Virtual Machine is responsible for interpreting Java byte code and translating it into actions. In the beginning, Java was the only programming language used for the JVM. But increasing complexity of the language and the remarkable performance of the JVM created an opening for a new generation of programming languages. If you want to build a strong foundation with the Java Virtual Machine and get started with popular modern programming languages, then this book is for you. The book will begin with a general introduction of the JVM and its features, which are common to the JVM languages, helping you get abreast with its concepts. It will then dive into explaining languages such as Java, Scala, Clojure, Kotlin, and Groovy and will show how to work with each language, their features, use cases, and pros and cons. By writing example projects in those languages and focusing on each language’s strong points, it will help you find the programming language that is most appropriate for your particular needs. By the end of the book, you will have written multiple programs that run on the Java Virtual Machine and know about the differences between the various languages.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Chapter 9. Kotlin

Kotlin is a language that is designed by JetBrains. JetBrains is the company behind popular IDEs for a wide variety of languages, including Java (IntelliJ), Python (PyCharm), PHP (PhpStorm), and many others. Their IDEs are offered in both commercial and a free community edition (which often has fewer features but is still very usable). Kotlin is, like Java, a statically typed language that is orientated towards object-oriented programming (OOP), but it also allows procedural programming. Like many modern OOP languages, it has many features inspired by functional programming. We'll cover the following topics here:

  • Installing Kotlin
  • Kotlin's Read-Eval-Print-Loop interactive shell
  • Kotlin language fundamentals
  • OOP in Kotlin
  • Procedural programming in Kotlin
  • Style guide
  • Quiz