It was in 2016 that Kotlin was introduced and soon after the plugin of Kotlin was integrated within the third version of Android Studio. During the time it was released, there were many who were skeptical about the plugin and its advantages but gradually several of them decided to try it on some smaller project. Its user-friendly nature seems to be the USP of Kotlin. When you use this programming language called Kotlin, you can distinguish between functionality and business logic with the help of extensions. This too saves you on the developing hours and this is why Kotlin has become their first-priority language for creating Android apps.
Kotlin was initially designed by JetBrains and it runs perfectly on Android Studio and IntelliJ. Once you successfully install it, you can either formulate a new project on Android or add something to an already-existing project. Check out few tips for developing Android apps using Kotlin.
The feature of lazy-load
The feature of Lazy loading is touted to have different benefits including the time it takes to start-up. The variables can load only after they’re accessed and this is where Kotlin will you stay ahead of others. The actual aim of the developers of Android app is to diminish the start-up time so as to help users get faster access to content. This kind of chosen loading of different resources is also considered as memory-efficient.
Design a new project with Kotlin
It is indeed easy to begin a new development in Kotlin as all you need to do is to go to ‘File’ and choose ‘New Project’. Then you have to give a name to the project and choose the installed SDK version of Android. Leave out majority of the options and try to keep them on default by selecting Enter as soon as it comes up.
Kotlin’s custom ‘getters and setters’ feature
The feature called custom getters and setters which you will find on Kotlin will utilize a model structure. However the behaviors to obtain the fields and set them are all specified. The non-class local variables retrieved and stored in custom way occur when the custom models or some other frameworks are utilized. Values of these will all look obtainable using the access syntax of the model.
Utilization of Lambdas
The total number of code lines in a specific source file can definitely be diminished utilizing lambdas that offer more space for functional programming. These are only feasible with Android as the main configuration of the build remain unchanged. If you use Kotlin, it will assure that you won’t require dealing Retrolambda. If you’re incorporating any one method, Lambda will work wonders for you.
Apply filer to different collections
When you’re creating something with API, you’ve got to deal with different sorts of collections. Often, you will wish to change the content of collection. If you use Kotlin collection filtering, you can easily achieve this and thereby give clarity and neatness to the code and you can also make it concise.
So, as we see, the main benefits of working with Kotlin are the clean and transparent working platform and its sheer simplicity. For instance, SAM conversions or Single Abstract Method can be done on Java classes by using reduced syntax. Though Kotlin development might seem a little bit complex for the beginners, but they can definitely take into account the above listed killer tips to alleviate the stress.
