Since then the interest, usage and fanbase grew even more. It can also run on the front-end using JavaScript. Google officially announced at their I/O conference in May that they now support Kotlin for Android development. This way, Java and Kotlin can be used at the same time (interoperability) on JVM’s and Android devices. The open-source programming language compiles to the JVM (Java Virtual Machine), Android and JavaScript. Kotlin was unveiled in 2011 and had its 1.0 stable release in February 2016 and 1.1 in March recently. Kotlin is basically build by the people who experienced the pain of Java. Influenced by the languages Java, C#, Scala and Groovy, Jetbrains put a team on developing a new programming language. They were looking for a new programming language that would be better than Java, but still interoperable for migration.

Kotlin is a programming language developed by Jetbrains, a company famous for IntelliJ, WebStorm, PhpStorm and their ReSharper plugin for Visual Studio. Bummed you missed it? No worries! Pieter will explain to you why he has become a big fan of this new language. At the Zebra APPFORUM 2017 Europe conference in Prague, our Android Developer Pieter Otten has inspired others to start using Kotlin. If you get a message saying “Kotlin not configured,” simply click “Configure>Android with Gradle,” then click “OK.“Kotlin, the New Programming Language That Will Make You Stop Using Java”.

In the top menubar, click “Code” then “Convert Java File to Kotlin File.” Please note the message about your code potentially being incorrect then click “OK.”

First, update everything in Android Studio.

Luckily, Android Studio includes a tool to make the transition more seamless by actually converting a selected Java file to Kotlin. While this news is great, it poses concerns for developers who will eventually need to update their existing Java code to the new language. At Google I/O 2017, it was announced that Kotlin will become the official language for Android development.

Convert java to kotlin android studio