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Welcome Fleet with Kotlin Multiplatform Tooling
Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) is an open-source technology built by JetBrains that allows you to share code across multiple platforms while retaining the benefits of native programming. Supported platforms include iOS, Android, desktop, web, and others. Today, we’re launching a preview for Kotlin Multiplatform support in Fleet, which simplifies the development of multiplatform applications, adding to […]

[Jacob Ras]

Having said that, the target audience for IntelliJ IDEA will primarily remain that of server-side developers targeting the JVM. While it will be possible to open, navigate, and build Kotlin Multiplatform projects in IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio, other features such as platform-specific run configurations, Compose Multiplatform features, and many other things that facilitate multiplatform development will be supported in Fleet only.

That's a very interesting statement about the future of Fleet

[CLOVIS]

Ouch, now that's a worrying statement.

[Landry Norris]

I'm surprised AS is included in that statement. Isn't it supposed to be the first-class Android IDE? I'd want to make it as easy as possible to onboard android devs to KMM.

[CLOVIS]

@hhariri Sorry for the ping, but you're the author of the article, and this was posted by a bot that I assume doesn't notify you when we comment here.

Can you clarify the above statement regarding IntelliJ vs Fleet for KMP development in the future? Maybe by giving examples of features you expect to be in Fleet but not in IntelliJ?

As a developer, IntelliJ is a very important tool. This reads like JB is going to decrease resources assigned to KMP support in IntelliJ—and well, if JB themselves are giving signs of decreasing resources on KMP now, when it was just promoted to stable, it's not going to be easy to convince companies to invest in it.

However, if this was just supposed to mean you have ideas of new experiences or tools that are not possible in IntelliJ, with no changes of plan with regards to how IntelliJ is developped in the future, then great! But I wouldn't have phrased it this way. (example feature: profit from Fleet being cloud-based to develop iOS apps from a non-MacOS client? That would be a massive advantage of Fleet without compromising on IntelliJ).

[hhariri]

@CLOVIS Thanks for the ping. Let me separate the two issues.

First and foremost, not only are we fully committed to KMP, but this initiative is actually confirming this commitment. We want to invest even more heavily in tooling in terms of providing a single IDE experience to work with KMP projects. There should be no concerns in that regard. Quite the contrary.

In terms of where we’ll be putting this effort - there are many possibilities as you rightly mention that Fleet will enable us and we want to leverage these. Our focus though for that single IDE experience will be on Fleet. With regards to IntelliJ, and given that is and will continue to serve as a platform for Fleet and AS, we will of course continue to support KMP projects as outlined in the blog post, however, the main features we aim to bring for KMP will be for Fleet. In terms of decreasing of resources, this actually isn’t the case. Our team structure internally at JetBrains is cross-functional and cross-platform and we will dedicate the necessary resources where it is needed.

[CLOVIS]

Thanks a lot. I would have liked a few examples of the kinds of features you are thinking of, but I assume you are not able to announce them yet?

I guess the uneasiness comes purely from how vague this section is. In my experience, Kotlin having excellent support in IntelliJ has been an easier sell to other developers than KMP itself. Telling a backend developer to adopt Kotlin/JS because it has almost no tooling impact is a very good argument in favor of KMP. If they have to switch IDEs, one the major advantages of KMP has been lost.

Now, indeed, if this announcement means to continue in the same path on the IntelliJ side, while adding resources to Fleet so it can add support for things that are not possible in IntelliJ (e.g. test your Kotlin/JS app on multiple browsers without installing them?), then great!

[Edoardo Luppi]

I think another big point is IDE adoption.
IntelliJ IDEA Community is the entry point for Kotlin (Multiplatform) currently. Hopefully this will remain the case, as otherwise it's going to be difficult to "sell" Kotlin to management initially.
Especially in this time period, I'm noticing big companies restructuring spending and minimizing the use of new paid tools.
(and you may say "get a personal license", but unfortunately there are processes that do not allow purchasing and using software like that)

[hhariri]

@Edoardo Luppi We plan on providing an entry point for Fleet users.

[Edoardo Luppi]

@hhariri something different than the currently proposed free plan? (asking because the free plan I see is restricted compared to what you get with Community now)

[hhariri]

@Edoardo Luppi once we have more information we'll update. Right now all I can say is that we will provide an entry point.

[rocketraman]

One of the goals with Fleet is stated as "A single IDE". But now, as a "server-side developer targeting the JVM", I'll still be stuck with two IDEs if I want to do KMP development: IDEA and Fleet. 👎

[Florian Kistner [JB]]

@rocketraman Have you had a chance yet to try opening your server-side JVM project in Fleet? What features are you missing that would prevent you from using Fleet as your single IDE?

[rocketraman]

@Florian Kistner [JB] I haven't yet, but I will try it (does it already support features supported by IDEA Ultimate, such as database access?). Is it the intent of JB that Fleet eventually supersedes IDEA (not talking about the backend platform here, but the developer-visible tooling)? The messaging I've heard so far is that this is not the case.