Am I right in thinking that Kotlin already supports all new

Question

Am I right in thinking that Kotlin already supports all new language features introduced in Java 9 10 11 and 12 and that supporting those newer Java versions in Android does not add anything for Kotlin Developers

Anastasia Finogenova · Answer

I think it was announced that there will be no support for Java gt 8 they went for kotlin first to avoid the desugaring nightmare

jw · Answer

You are not right no

jw · Answer

ART doesn t even support things like lambdas introduced in Java 8 They are always desugared to classes at compile time instead of at runtime

jw · Answer

In Java 9 StringConcatFactory was added which changes string concatenation from non optimal and bloated in bytecode to compact and optimal at runtime Can t do that despite the performance and binary size wins

jw · Answer

How about constant dynamic in Java 11 which can move otherwise eager static initializations that occur on class loading to be lazy and automatically thread safe Sounds like something that would benefit Android where memory and initialization performance are critical

jw · Answer

I see now you said language feature in your original question but that s a weird comparison because Java hasn t needed 9 10 11 12 or 13 either to support any of its new language features They re all implemented in the compiler and emit bytecode that has been around forever The only reason they actually require new versions is that they stopped supporting different source and target versions since it results in a combinatorial explosion of test scenarios with the new release schedule

jw · Answer

The only things which do require new bytecode VM support are not even exposed at the language level in any capacity being constant dynamic and nestmates

rkeazor · Answer

Is there a reason why they decided not to support the newer version of java Because I would suspect that would also put a strain on kotlin development because of interoperability < jw>

jw · Answer

I have no insight into such matters The lack of tracking the upstream versions will only produce problems later on and it currently is a giant drag on the Java library ecosystem

pablisco · Answer

Would it make sense for Android to put more effort on having more tooling and better support for Kotlin Native once it becomes stable I know there is support for games and such but with the likes of `compose` and the fact that okhttp and many other libraries are now xplatform there may be room to rethink the APIs Having a VM on a mobile device feels like it s a bit of drag in terms of performance The platform team has done an amazing job at making the system be better with every version however Flutter is a good example of how much more efficient native can be I could be wrong though sweat smile

rkeazor · Answer

Yea true that Perhaps it s because Oracle was given out Lawsuits like girl scout cookies lol Moving away from the VM sounds extremely diffcult But i do agree going completely native would be better performance wise

jw · Answer

Neither Compose nor OkHttp works on Kotlin Native

rkeazor · Answer

There are always tradeoffs Plus the fact that they would have to go the Apple route and break interoperability But yea that s just wishful thinking

jw · Answer

Yep Never going to happen

rkeazor · Answer

joy joy

rkeazor · Answer

Exactly

pablisco · Answer

gt Implemented in Kotlin with a dependency on the Kotlin standard library We want the option to support coroutines and multiplatform including Kotlin Native <https github com square okhttp issues 4723> But I could have mentioned Ktor it s just an example And with compose what I meant is that it uses Skia underneath right I could also be wrong here so it wouldn t be a stretch to make it work with K N

pablisco · Answer

< rkeazor> They are deprecating AsyncTask in Android 11 upside down face One step at a time joy

rkeazor · Answer

A micro step lol They would have to redesign there whole framework

tseisel · Answer

So if I understand well the Android Runtime would really benefit from supporting features that have been introduced in Java 8 9 10 11 and up at the bytecode level since those would really improve performance

pablisco · Answer

Nope let s drop VMs altogether and go straight to K N upside down face

jw · Answer

< thibaud> yes

thibaud · Answer

wrong Thibaud Thibault sweat smile

jw · Answer

oof sorry autocomplete betrayed me you d think it would sort based on people in the thread