How I learned Kotlin
About me
I am a Computer Science student in India. I have been working with Android apps since 3 years now and I love coding and designing. I love solving problems and making things easier.
Why I wanted to learn Kotlin
I wanted to learn Kotlin because of the positives it was bringing to the table as compared to Java for Android Development. Many of the things which were making developers difficult to work with were eased out in Kotlin. There was a lot less code and more focus on what our Application should be about.
How I approached learning Kotlin
I started learning Kotlin a year back. That time it was fairly new in the industry and people were skeptic about it. There was not much community support as there is now, after Google made it an official language for Android App Development. I started by following video tutorials by Hadi Hariri, who worked at JetBrains at the Kotlin project. This was a great series.
I started reading other people's code on the internet. I would compare it with the existing Java code and find out what is made better in Kotlin and what is not.
Then, slowly I started using it in my own projects.
Challenges I faced
The one challenge was community support. Many developers didn't have experience with Kotlin and so the Stack Overflow was mostly empty for its questions.
Now there is a great support and people are shifting to Kotlin after Google's decisions.
Key takeaways
I enjoyed learning something new. It was like a ride with roadblocks and pits, but it was amazing. The point is you don't give up. Keep pushing your car and looking back in the end, you will have a breathtaking view of the journey you covered.
Tips and advice
My advice would be don't wait out. Start. Don't stop. If you find it interesting, go for it but at least try it. Kotlin is great and it will be greater when everyone supports it and gets to know the beauty of it.
And don't start using Kotlin haphazardly everywhere. Learn about best practices.
Final thoughts and next steps
This learning curve was an amazing ride. My next step would be to give keynotes about my journey of Kotlin and teach young developers about it.
