Curious if there is a timeline for an update to th...

# touchlab-tools

[Bradleycorn]

Curious if there is a timeline for an update to the Touchlab KMP Essential Guide?

[kpgalligan]

Well, let's say the info is coming. The website announcing the target date should be updated very soon, as 2023 was ambitious. What we've learned and how we approach KMP keeps expanding, so multiple drafts were already a bit outdated before finishing. However, this is definitely in the works. Whatever the "form" of the guide, the content from which it will be created will be coming out in the run up to KotlinConf.
On the 2023 deadline, one of my favorite quotes:

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

- Douglas Adams

(https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1398-i-love-deadlines-i-love-the-whooshing-noise-they-make)

[Bradleycorn]

Thanks @kpgalligan. Trying to make the case for KMP in our organization.
Product folks are infatuated with things like Xamarin and React Native. I love the info in the guide as to the shortcomings and broken promises that these “write once, deploy everywhere” frameworks have. But some of KMP info in it is a bit out of date, which is why I was looking for an updated version.

[kpgalligan]

Oh, not a bit (out of date I mean. It's quite out of date, at least in parts). If you have some info on why the product folks are infatuated and those arguments, please share (DM OK too). If anything, the more recent advancements with KMP should make it an obviously better choice going forward, if UX and a "native" experience are of value.

[Bradleycorn]

It’s the typical arguments. Some of our competitors are using xamarin or react native, so maybe we should too. Like everyone, we’re looking for ways to deliver features faster, and they buy into the idea that we can do that with those frameworks because “we don’t have to write two separate applications. We can deliver twice as fast”! The current guide does a good job of explaining why that is not true. There’s also the issue we have today with inconsistencies between the ios and android applications, and they see tools like Xamarin as a way to solve that. But most of our inconsistencies are due to differences in the implementation of business logic, and KMP is a perfect solution for that.

This is not to mention that we have a full staff of Android and iOS engineers who love their platforms and have no knowledge or desire to learn xamarin or react native. We very likely would lose some of our top talent if we went that route, as well as having to recruit new talent who do know those frameworks. KMP will allow us to leverage our existing talent, and let them continue to do what they love (write great UI’s in Compose/SwiftUI) while leveraging Kotlin/KMP for shared business logic.