Learning Kotlin

If you've never worked with Kotlin, there are a number of ways to try it out and to begin learning the language.

If you would like to jump right into using Kotlin in your existing code base, Kotlin is supported by a number of popular IDEs:

Android Studio and IntelliJ IDEA both provide support for quickly converting Java to Kotlin and for examining the common generated bytecode. Additionally, both IDEs provide a REPL tool and scratch files that allow you to quickly run individual Kotlin commands or functions independently from the rest of the code base. This can make it very easy to start playing with Kotlin within a familiar tool.

If you would prefer to try Kotlin before downloading an IDE, there are several options for hands-on learning in your web browser:

Each of these will help you gain an understanding of Kotlin features, and extend from the basics up to more complex coding challenges where you can test your understanding.

In this book, we'll work through examples of many of Kotlin's features. We'll work to understand the features on their own, and then learn how they can be used to cleanly architect your applications and implement familiar design patterns. Additional resources for learning Kotlin can be found at the end of this chapter in the Further reading section.