Book Image

Mastering Kotlin

By : Nate Ebel
Book Image

Mastering Kotlin

By: Nate Ebel

Overview of this book

Using Kotlin without taking advantage of its power and interoperability is like owning a sports car and never taking it out of the garage. While documentation and introductory resources can help you learn the basics of Kotlin, the fact that it’s a new language means that there are limited learning resources and code bases available in comparison to Java and other established languages. This Kotlin book will show you how to leverage software designs and concepts that have made Java the most dominant enterprise programming language. You’ll understand how Kotlin is a modern approach to object-oriented programming (OOP). This book will take you through the vast array of features that Kotlin provides over other languages. These features include seamless interoperability with Java, efficient syntax, built-in functional programming constructs, and support for creating your own DSL. Finally, you will gain an understanding of implementing practical design patterns and best practices to help you master the Kotlin language. By the end of the book, you'll have obtained an advanced understanding of Kotlin in order to be able to build production-grade applications.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Kotlin – A Modern Solution to Application Development
4
Section 2: Putting the Pieces Together – Modeling Data, Managing State, and Application Architecture
8
Section 3: Play Nice – Integrating Kotlin With Existing Code
13
Section 4: Go Beyond – Exploring Advanced and Experimental Language Features
17
Section 5: The Wide World of Kotlin – Using Kotlin across the Entire Development Stack

Chapter 8: Controlling the Story

  1. What is the @JvmName annotation used for?
  • It can be used to change the name of the Java class generated by the Kotlin compiler to contain top-level functions and properties.
  1. What is the @JvmStatic annotation used for?
  • It indicates that the compiler should generate JVM static elements such as methods, getters, and setters for the annotated element.
  1. What does the @JvmOverloads annotation do when applied to a Kotlin function?
  • It denotes that the compiler should generate overloaded methods for a function that provide the Kotlin-defined default parameter values, making them available from Java through the overloaded methods.
  1. What are use-site targets used for?
  • They are used to specify which compiler-generated element an annotation should be applied to. For example, an annotation applied to a var property could use a use-site target to...