Hello friends, I have a client with a legacy Java backend project (Spring + Java 5). He is "open to Kotlin" but needs to be convinced. How would you make succintly the case for Kotlin on a server application?

Doesn't kotlin requires java 1.6+?

I would argue that Kotlin improves developer productivity and happiness, and it's a language that has grown strongly. Is there a whole team you need to convince as well? Perhaps you can get them on board to spend 1-2 days for a mob programming session where you port some part of the existing application? If you plan it carefully it could provide a lot of opportunities to showcase some great Kotlin stuff 🙂 (btw I just started using your refreshVersions plugin, super happy with it!)

@Emil Kantis I love the suggestion of a mob programing session, thanks a lot, and thanks for your kind words on refreshVersions

What precisely would you be proposing to your client? Convert their existing app to Kotlin? Build something new in Kotlin alongside it?

It's a server written like 10 years ago that needs to be rewritten

java 5 ? oh my god

java 5 means just pure java 5 syntax, not that its deployed on a legacy jdk, right?

Sorry…had to

hehe

I'd need to understand what this client needs in order to be able to give a good answer, but at a high level, the two things that I really like about Kotlin are: • The lack of boilerplate, meaning you can get more done with less/cleaner code • The ability to move a codebase bit by bit from Java to Kotlin, so you can incrementally deliver the above cleaner code and don't have to do a big-bang rewrite

The term for migrating bit by bit is called Piecemeal Migration.