We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Google's Journey from Java to Kotlin for Server Side Programming by James Ward , Brad Hawkes , John
Join Google's James Ward, Brad Hawkes, and John as they share their journey from Java to Kotlin for server-side programming, highlighting the motivations, challenges, and successes of their migration.
- Google’s journey from Java to Kotlin was motivated by the need for a more modern, concise, and safe language for server-side programming.
- Kotlin’s features such as null safety, coroutines, and interoperability with Java were major selling points.
- Google’s existing codebase was a significant challenge, requiring a gradual migration approach.
- The company uses thread locals for various purposes, including synchronization and multi-threading.
- Coroutines have been a game-changer, allowing for asynchronous programming without the need for callbacks or threads.
- Loom, a new concurrency feature, is still being developed and will be used in conjunction with coroutines.
- Google’s ecosystem is complex, with multiple languages and frameworks, but Kotlin has been able to integrate well with existing tools and libraries.
- The company is investing heavily in Kotlin, with a large team working on the language and its ecosystem.
- Kotlin’s adoption has been rapid, with over 11 million lines of code written in the language.
- Google is working to improve the developer experience, including the use of DSLs and auto-completion.
- The company is also investing in static analysis and tooling to help developers write more reliable code.
- Kotlin’s interoperability with Java has been a major advantage, allowing developers to reuse existing code and libraries.
- Google’s experience with Kotlin has been largely positive, with developers reporting higher productivity and satisfaction.
- The company is still working to address some challenges, including the need for better error handling and debugging tools.