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by chipuni 2958 days ago
With a title like that, the article should explore many new languages out there and what they offer a programmer.

Instead, this article just answers its question with one word: Kotlin.

I get it; Kotlin is easier to write in than Java. But the article should list why it's better than Scala or Clojure, if we're restricting ourselves to JVM languages. (And why should we?)

There's 48 languages more common than Kotlin, according to https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ . Why is it better than all of them?

2 comments

By restricting ourselves to the JVM, we can introduce Kotlin code gradually because it can run side-by-side with legacy Java code. Unlike the other JVM languages, Kotlin has been designed to work seamlessly with an IDE. It doesn't introduce as much extra symbol syntax as Scala so it's still readable. And it was designed to be statically-compiled from the ground up, unlike Clojure and Apache Groovy which both bolted on clumsy-looking static-typing annotations later on.
> Unlike the other JVM languages, Kotlin has been designed to work seamlessly with an IDE.

Specifically, one IDE: Intellij.

Outside that one case, support is just as good/bad as Scala.

> There's 48 languages more common than Kotlin, according to https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ . Why is it better than all of them?

Funny you should say that:

TIOBE Index for May 2018

May Headline: Scala cracks top 20

TIL that Ada is more popular than Kotlin.