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Kotlin

A modern, statically typed language for the JVM and other targets.

Kotlin is a statically typed, object-oriented and functional language developed by JetBrains. It targets the JVM by default, with additional back-ends for JavaScript, native code via LLVM, and WebAssembly (in beta). The language makes Java-style programming much more concise — null-safety in the type system, data classes, extension functions, smart casts, coroutines for structured concurrency — while interoperating cleanly with existing Java code and libraries.

JetBrains released Kotlin in 2011 to scratch their own itch: their flagship IDE, IntelliJ IDEA, was a multi-million-line Java codebase that they wanted to evolve into something more expressive without rewriting from scratch. Google adopted Kotlin as a first-class Android development language in 2017 and the preferred language in 2019, which carried Kotlin into the mainstream of mobile development almost overnight. Compose Multiplatform now extends that into desktop and iOS UIs from shared Kotlin code.

Beyond Android, Kotlin sees adoption in Spring-based backend work, Gradle build scripts (where Kotlin DSL is replacing the older Groovy DSL), and increasingly in cross-platform projects that share business logic across server, web, mobile, and desktop. The Kotlin Foundation was set up jointly by JetBrains and Google in 2018 to steward the language.

Debian/Ubuntu: sudo snap install --classic kotlin
Arch:          sudo pacman -S kotlin
macOS:         brew install kotlin