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#getting-started
Title
# getting-started
g

grace

10/29/2023, 10:34 AM
hello its me again😩 im trying to learn kotlin but the docs are so difficult to understand. reading kotlin + http4k docs i learnt simple java before, do you think people should learn java first so that they can understand kotlin? also, im confused about annotations. from what i understand, the annotations are documentation about the code. with or without them, the code will behave the same. so almost similar like comments. is it correct? thx friend
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efemoney

10/29/2023, 10:50 AM
do you think people should learn java first so that they can understand kotlin?
Not necessary. Annotations are not like comments. Think of them like metadata that is added to code. What purpose the metadata serves however can range from a long list of things. You can have metadata that serves only to document the annotated code (in that case like a comment), you can have metadata that means that the annotated code changes behavior in specific or all situations, you can have metadata that is specifies to some higher level tools to pre or post process the annotated code for arbitrary reasons… I would say dont worry too much about annotations now, when the use cases pop up you will learn and know how to define/use them.
As far as learning goes, the docs are pretty darn good but nothing teaches better than experience (imo) so get your hands dirty and write kotlin code as you are going through the docs. For every feature, run every example or build small kotlin programs that focus on exploring all of the particular feature. And don’t be too hard on yourself, you will learn more over time!
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g

grace

10/29/2023, 10:56 AM
thx so much🥲