Kotlin vs. Java: What’s the Difference between the two?

• In this blog post of difference between Kotlin vs. Java, we will be discussing the key differences between the two programming languages Java vs. Kotlin. But before discussing the differences between Kotlin and Java, let us first learn “What is Kotlin really?” and “What is Java?” Let us start with Kotlin:

So what is Kotlin?

• Kotlin is an open-source programming language that can run on the Java Virtual Machine or JVM. This language can run on numerous platforms.
• It is a language that combines the concepts of Object Oriented Programming (OOPs) and functional programming in an unrestricted, self – sufficient and distinct platform.

In this blog pose, you will be learning:

• What is Kotlin?
• What is Java?
• Features of Kotlin
• Features of Java
• History of Kotlin
• History of Java
• Differences between Kotlin and Java
• Advantages of Kotlin
• Advantages of Java
• Disadvantages of Kotlin
• Disadvantages of Java
• Which is better amongst the two?

What is Java?

• Java is a cross-platform, object-oriented, and network-centric, programming language. It is amongst the most used programming languages. It also used as one of the computing platforms, and it was first released by the Sun Microsystem in the year 1995. It was later acquired by the Oracle Corporation.

KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JAVA AND KOTLIN:

• Kotlin combines the features of both object-oriented as well as functional programming, whereas Java on the other hand is limited to only object-oriented programming.
• Kotlin enables its users to create an extension function while Java doesn’t offer any extension function of this sort.
• Kotlin does not offer any implicit conversions, and Java supports implicit conversions.
• There are no null variables or objects present in Kotlin on the other hand, Null variable or objects are part of the Java language.
• Kotlin does not support static members, while Java makes use of the static members.
• In case of Kotlin, the variables of a primitive type are objects while in case of Java Variables of a primitive type aren’t objects.
• Kotlin even supports Lambda Expression whereas Java doesn’t support the Lambda expression.
• Kotlin does not require any variable datatype specifications while Java requires variable datatype specifications.
• Kotlin does not even require any variable datatype specifications but Java requires variable datatype specifications.
• Kotlin programs do not require semicolons in their program for statement termination while Java program does need a semicolon to terminate an expression or a statement.
• Language scripting capabilities enable you to use Kotlin directly in your Gradle build scripts while Java does not offer you the language scripting capabilities.

Features of Kotlin Programming language:

Here, are some of the important features that Kotlin offers us:

• It offers us with Trimmed Coding.
• Kotlin makes use of the JVM, which combines the features of OOPs and the functional-oriented programming.
• It offers us with fast compilation.
• Kotlin can even support a variety of extension functions without making any changes to the code.
• You can write the Kotlin code using any IDE or using the command-line interface
• Smart feature casting helps you to cut down a little on the application costs and improves its speed or performance and efficiency.

Features of Java programming language:

Here are some of the important features of Java:

• You can write code once and run it on almost any of the computing platform.
• It is designed in a way that it can be used for building the object-oriented applications.
• It is a multithreaded language that enables the the automatic memory management.
• It facilitates the distributed computing as it is a network-centric programming language.

History of Kotlin

Here, are important landmarks from the history of Kotlin:

• In the year 2016, Kotlin v1.0 was launched
• In the year 2017, Announcement of Google on the first-class support of Kotlin in Android
• In the year 2018, Kotlin v1.3 version released bringing coroutines for asynchronous programming.
• In the year 2019, Google announced Kotlin as its preferred programming language for Android application developers

History of the JAVA programming language:

Here, are some of the important landmarks from the history of Java language

• The Java language was initially known as OAK. Originally, it was developed for the purpose of handling portable devices and set-top boxes. Oak was a tremendous failure.
• In the year 1995, Sun changed the name to “Java” and modified the language to take advantage of the burgeoning www (World Wide Web) development business.
• Later in the year 2009, Oracle Corporation acquired Sun Microsystems and took ownership of three key Sun software assets: Java, MySQL, and Solaris.

Advantage of using Kotlin programming language:

Here, are benefits or the pros of using Kotlin programming language:

• Using the Kotlin language Multiplatform framework, you can extract one common codebase that will target all of them at the same time
• Kotlin offers you with built-in null safety support, which is a lifesaver, especially on Android, which is full of old Java-style APIs.
• It’s a more concise and expressive programming language as compared to Java, which means there is less room for error.
• It offers user-friendly and understandable coding norms
• It divides large apps into smaller layers.
• It makes use lots of function types and specialized language structures like lambda expressions.
• Helps the developers to create extension functions
• Offers us with a very simple and almost automated way of creating data classes
• Kotlin is a statically-typed language, so it is a very easy to read and write language.
• This language enables the exchange and use of information from Java in various ways.
• It will take less time to write the new code in Kotlin.
• It is quite easier to deploy kotlin code and to maintain it at scale.

Advantages of Java

Here, are pros/benefits of Java

• Checked exceptions that improve error detecting and solving
• Detailed documentation is available to the users.
• A large domain of skilled developers are available
• A huge array of the 3rd party libraries is available.
• It enables you to form standard programs and reusable code.
• It is a multi-threaded environment that enables you as the users to perform many tasks simultaneously in a program.
• It has excellent performance
• It is very easy to navigate the libraries in java.

Thank you very much for reading this blog! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!!

And all the very best for your coding journey ahead!!

For More Information like this make sure to register yourself at NullClass now !