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

The Kotlin/JVM compiler

The Kotlin/JVM backend compiler is what helps translate code written in Kotlin into Java bytecode, which is code that can be run on the JVM or Android. Kotlin was initially designed for the Java world, including Android, and the Kotlin/JVM compiler was the one that paved the way for the Kotlin language.

How it works

The Kotlin/JVM compiler generates the same .class executables that the Java compiler does, which is the Java bytecode that can be run on the JVM:

Figure 2.1 – How Kotlin/JVM works

This means that you can decompile your Java bytecode, the .class executables, and check the Java code, which is quite handy if you want to see what the generated Kotlin code looks like.

So, the Kotlin/JVM value proposition was (and still is) that it provides the rich palette of language features of Kotlin and translates the code you write with it into the same Java bytecode that has seamless interoperability with any other Java...