Book Image

Simplifying Application Development with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile

By : Róbert Nagy
Book Image

Simplifying Application Development with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile

By: Róbert Nagy

Overview of this book

Sharing code between platforms can help developers gain a competitive edge, and Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) offers a sensible way to do it. KMM helps mobile teams share code between Android and iOS in a flexible way, leaving room for native development. The book begins by helping you to gain a clear understanding of the Kotlin Multiplatform approach, how it works, and how it is different from cross-platform technologies, such as React Native and Flutter, and code sharing options, such as C++. You'll then see how your team can use this software development kit (SDK) to build native applications more effectively by learning timeless concepts and working through practical examples. As you advance, you'll get to grips with the core concepts, understand why UI sharing fails, and get hands-on with developing a small KMM application. Finally, you'll discover expert tips and best practices, along with production- and adoption-related questions, that will help you take the next step in your project and career. By the end of this Kotlin book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of the capabilities of KMM and be able to share code between Android and iOS flexibly.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
1
Section 1 - Getting Started with Multiplatform Mobile Development Using Kotlin
5
Section 2 - Code Sharing between Android and iOS
10
Section 3 - Supercharging Yourself for the Next Steps

Managing your KMP expectations

This section will consist of some thoughts on the roadmap of KMP and some questions regarding its future.

Will it change the mobile development landscape?

In some sense, yes. Think of KMP as a new tool in the native app development palette that can offer good code sharing capabilities. It's already taking some "market share" from pure native and cross-platform technologies (such as React Native and Flutter). While the ratio will probably change (I'm personally bullish on KMP becoming the preferred choice), I can't see why one of these three approaches would disappear – they can all serve a specific use case.

Kotlin/Native's direct interoperability with Swift

Many people are excited about this since it's on the JetBrains teams' roadmap. I think that with the new concurrency model and direct interoperability with Swift, the usability and experience with the iOS will improve a lot, though it will...