Is there any reason to prefer

fun main(args: Array<String>)

over

fun main(vararg args: String)

?

The first is idiomatic

What do you mean by "call

main

explicitly"? I pass parameters into many of my programs regularly when I run them.

I mean how often are you calling

main

directly from Kotlin code

Ah, I see what you're saying. Indeed, I basically never call

main

directly, but for some strange reason I find the

vararg

variant far more aesthetically pleasing when reading the source.

If you want to you can, but I'd recommend sticking with the idiomatic form

Fair enough. In general I tend to prefer idiomatic constructs, so that's compelling reason to stick with `Array`s. But the

vararg

just looks so good for some reason... 🙂

np

@randomcat why is it idiomatic?

The idiomatic way to write it in Java is

public static void main(String[] args)

.

fun main(args: Array<String>)

is the direct translation of that into Kotlin. It's also how the docs define

main

https://play.kotlinlang.org/byExample/01_introduction/01_Hello%20world

ah but that’s not Kotlin tho

So? Kotlin has its roots in Java

For sure, I just wanna know what you think is more idiomatic about this one language feature instead of this other language feature

I'm not deciding what is idiomatic, I'm just saying what it the more common version

That seems different from saying “X is idiomatic [and therefore, Y is not]“, doesn’t it?

I mean I was taking "idiomatic" to mean commonly used and accepted

Definitely more common, agreed

Also, the fact that

maina

in IntelliJ generates the

Array

version, it's probably safe to assume it's considered the more idiomatic of the two.

It also makes searching for main easier for people who are new to your project

I hadn't thought of that. That's a good point.

I would say

Array

is much easier to understand that vararg. "Hey it's an array of arguments" Vs "Hey it's vararg? Hmm whats the type of it? Is it list? Array? Never mind, at least it says several args, so an Iterable, aha!"