Hacker News Reader

Comment by jrwiegand | Hacker News Reader

It makes me sad that people are so upset by the recent hype Kotlin is getting. Everyone has something that they get excited about. Kotlin is new and shiny and has been around awhile but only on the fringe. Google brings it to the spotlight and people are going to be interested. Maybe Kotlin gets big, maybe not but there is no need to get angry about the news. It is big news. Android is the most used smartphone OS in the world[1]. This is going to have an impact somewhere.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...

View on HN

I am using Kotlin for a year now and man...it is a joy to use after Java. I don't care whether it is hyped or not I will never return to Java.

well more languages, with incremental improvements, isn`t always good

look at all the languages that compile to javascript: bucklescript, clojurescript, elm, dart, purescript, coffeescript, livescript ...

as a developer, you can`t learn them all, and because there is too many, some will surely drop from the race

some people are worried, because kotlin may just become another technology you need to learn, more than another technology you really need

I like kotlin and I am not angry about the news. I am angry because the people is starting to notice it now because Google bla bla bla. It is a great language, with or without Google, it is going to keep being a great language.

There were so much hype about swift, when kotlin was here and probably doing better (no incompatibility issues between versions for example). Swift and kotlin are the languages to look to the future. One or two years ago, and today.

I wish the people would have more critic sense and asses the things by themselves before a big company says anything. (Because kotlin was great before Google said anything)

That's still nothing to be angry about. That's like being pissed off that more people are suddenly talking about your favorite author after he wins a Pulitzer. Being adopted as a fully supported language by the platform maintainer is about the biggest milestone it could achieve, of course more people are going to take notice.

You're coming across as a Kotlin hipster. I would just be happy the language is now on more people's radar. Maybe some folks had never even heard of the language before this year's IO. Learning a new programming language and its idioms isn't a trivial time investment for devs swamped with work, so waiting until a heavy hitter like Google throws its weight behind it is quite a pragmatic approach.

I am happy more people is aware of kotlin now, I am not happy the people wasn't aware before. Even when you were pointing them to the goods of the language. But still I trust more JetBrains than Google for programming langues, only because is a company that create tools for programmers, they have more experience.

The suitability of a language for a particular project doesn't just depend on language features.

Most new languages will fade away without ever getting enough traction to survive. It's a real risk that is mitigated by corporate backing.

Many people may have been aware of Kotlin's strengths but found themselves unable to justify its use for a mission critical task.

> I wish the people would have more critic sense and asses the things by themselves before a big company says anything.

When there is more mindshare around an up and coming programming language, it's simply easier for a community to build and learn with the support of a large company. There are several JVM languages devs can select from, but it's not practical to expect devs to sit around and explore each and every one of those languages.

> learn with the support of a large company.

Isn't JetBrains a large company? Or even a company without experience in programming languages?

I trust more a language created from a company which create tools for programmers that any other one.

> There were so much hype about swift

Probably would have had the same as Kotlin if Apple hadn't announced it in WWDC.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com