Hello friends, I have a client with a legacy Java ...
# serverj
jmfayard
06/07/2021, 5:04 PMHello 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?
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Big Chungus
06/07/2021, 5:06 PMDoesn't kotlin requires java 1.6+?
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Emil Kantis
06/07/2021, 5:36 PMI 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!)
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jmfayard
06/07/2021, 6:04 PM@Emil Kantis I love the suggestion of a mob programing session, thanks a lot, and thanks for your kind words on refreshVersions
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cdpjenkins
06/07/2021, 10:35 PMWhat precisely would you be proposing to your client? Convert their existing app to Kotlin? Build something new in Kotlin alongside it?
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jmfayard
06/07/2021, 11:09 PMIt's a server written like 10 years ago that needs to be rewritten
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Vincent Huang
06/08/2021, 3:10 AMjava 5 ? oh my god
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christophsturm
06/08/2021, 12:18 PMjava 5 means just pure java 5 syntax, not that its deployed on a legacy jdk, right?
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Petur Valdimarsson
06/09/2021, 9:50 AMSorry…had to
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christophsturm
06/09/2021, 9:54 AMhehe
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cdpjenkins
06/09/2021, 12:06 PMI'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
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napperley
06/12/2021, 4:20 AMThe term for migrating bit by bit is called Piecemeal Migration.
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napperley
06/12/2021, 4:24 AMShowing some case studies where Kotlin has been used for Serverside development ( https://kotlinlang.org/lp/server-side/case-studies/ ) would also help convince the client. One example case study is Atlassian ( ).