Kotlin
A concise multiplatform language developed by JetBrains
Kotlin 2021 Keynote Highlights
The Kotlin 2021 Premier Online Event has started! The next two weeks are going to be full of exciting content. We’ve prepared lots of updates from the Kotlin team, news on the Kotlin ecosystem, and an opportunity to get a glimpse into the future of Kotlin. All of this is in your favorite format – YouTube videos – so stay ahead of the curve from the comfort of your couch!
Enjoy the keynote with the main news
Here you can find updates and exciting news on the Kotlin ecosystem in the event keynote by Roman Elizarov, Ekaterina Petrova, Sebastian Aigner, and Egor Tolstoy:
- Kotlin popularity grows in different areas, including server-side and education. The number of Kotlin server-side users increased by 40% in the last year. 25 of the top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings already include Kotlin in their courses.
- The Kotlin K2 compiler, which aims to speed up the development of new language features, bring performance improvements, and provide an API for compiler extensions, is in the active development stage. Some parts are already available while others will be available soon!
- The Kotlin JVM IR backend is already stable and enabled by default.
- For Kotlin/JS, you can opt-in to use the IR backend, which is now in Beta and is going to be stabilized this year.
- A preview of the new compiler frontend, which has already shown a 2x faster compilation process in a number of internal projects, will be available in the scope of Kotlin 1.6 and its minor updates.
- Soon it will be possible to create modern web applications in Kotlin not only with Kotlin/JS, but also by targeting WebAssembly. A dedicated team at JetBrains is working full-time on bringing the Wasm target for Kotlin into reality by building an entirely new compiler backend.
- Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile will go Beta in Spring 2022! That means you can use it in production, and we’ll minimize migration issues for you. KMM in Beta will come with the new memory management approach for Kotlin/Native, Kotlin/Native binary compatibility, stable build tooling, and many other important improvements to help you maximize productivity when writing code and let you focus only on the logic of your app.
- This year the Kotlin ecosystem saw record growth. In the last 12 months, more than 250,000 Kotlin repositories were created on GitHub. More and more Kotlin libraries that are being developed by the community are getting multiplatform support. For example Arrow, Koin, and Apollo are now available for multiplatform development.
- Dokka, a documentation generation tool, reaches Beta with Kotlin 1.6.0. Dokka brings a uniform visual style and structure and uses the same UI as the recently updated Kotlin docs, which have already been tested and received lots of positive feedback.
- JetBrains Qodana, a code quality monitoring platform that provides free support for Kotlin projects, is now Stable.
- We are introducing Kover – a new Gradle plugin that measures code coverage for Kotlin code built with the Kotlin/JVM compiler. The tool is still in early development, but you can already use it with your code. It works with all language constructs, including inline functions. It can be used locally or on your CI server.
Watch the whole Keynote video and don’t miss other important updates
Watch event videos to dive into interesting topics
The Kotlin 2021 Premier Online Event will last for two weeks, during which you will be able to explore the different Kotlin topics by enjoying the dedicated videos.
- Take a first look into Kotlin & WebAssembly
- See the KMM Beta Roadmap
- Learn what’s new in Ktor 2.0 and how to work with Spring Native with Kotlin
- Discover new tools such as KSP, Kover, and Qodana
- Get a top-down view of the new K2 Compiler.
Save the date for the upcoming video
In addition to watching videos…
Have fun with us
Take snaps of yourself, apply Kotlin-colored backgrounds, and add stickers with the mascot and code elements in the Kotlin photo booth. Share your photos on Twitter and other social media with the #kotlinevent21 hashtag. Let’s make this event memorable together!
Take quizzes and win a prize
Several event videos will be accompanied by quizzes that can win you Kotlin swag. Subscribe to Kotlin YouTube and don’t miss your chance to win!
Some quizzes are based only on the video content while others may include questions on additional materials linked to videos. Take all the quizzes and get the highest score – each correctly answered question will give you one point.
The top 30 scorers will get cozy Kotlin blankets. For details, check out our quiz rules.
Create materials and get recognized
Kotlin is constantly evolving and we continuously get requests to provide more information on different topics. Let’s create such materials and help the community together! Your contribution is appreciated.
Create materials – articles, videos, and samples – on the topics listed in our rules and share them with us by November 8.
After submitting your materials you will have a chance to win one of ten cozy Kotlin blankets. In addition to the blanket, we may promote your article or video in the official Kotlin channels.
Summary
Just to summarize:
- Watch the keynote if you haven’t watched it yet.
- Subscribe to event videos to get notifications and take quizzes before others.
- Take a snap of yourself and decorate it with Kotlin stickers.
- Contribute to Kotlin by writing articles, recording videos, and creating samples.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments under this blog post.
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