The dark side of kotlin by Jarek Ratajski

Misconceptions about Kotlin

• Language has many “dark corners” and “abuse potential”
• Overloading operators can be “crazy” and “make no sense”
• Using the star operator can create ambiguous code
• Coroutines are not always easy to use and can cause mistakes

Abstraction

• Abstraction is a process of analyzing something, classifying, and hiding details
• Too much abstraction can lead to “magic boxes” and “abuse”

Kotlin-specific issues

• Using var for fields and functions can be confusing
• Method reference can be used to create “wrapper” functions
• Lambda expressions can be used in many ways, but some uses may be confusing
• Type inference can create complex code

Recommendations and thoughts

• Code should be readable and understandable, not “hacky”
• Languages should be designed to prevent mistakes
• Compiler design is important to create a language that is easy to use

General programming thoughts

• Developers waste hours trying to understand complex code
• Good code should be simple, straightforward, and easy to understand
• The key to good programming is understanding abstraction and how to use it effectively.