Hi all! So far, Compose versions have been tied to...

# compose

[Tash]

Hi all! So far, Compose versions have been tied to Kotlin version/vice-versa until Kotlin makes compiler plugin APIs stable.

Is this still true, or have there been any recent developments on this front? 🙏🏼

[jw]

Still true. For probably two or three years

[Tash]

Oop 😖, good to know. We were thinking of ways to decouple Compose from our project and keep all Compose things in a separately buildable project to allow for more independence, but wanted to know if there are any better ways of decoupling this for the “time being”

[jw]

That is a good way since it provides you the flexibility of changing your main build Kotlin version at a normal rate rather than having to wait for Google and their inability to update and release at speed.

[jw]

If only Compose didn't live in the AndroidX repo in AOSP things would be so much nicer

[Tash]

True; faster iterations if it weren't on AOSP or some such, hmm. Thanks for confirming, will give that a shot.

[Tash]

There is one issue around inferred stability with non-compose + compose module “interop”, but there should be some ways to get around it
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/191068806

[mcpiroman]

Currently compiler plugins work directly on compiler internals, so stabilizing the APIs would mean stopping evolution of the compiler and therefore kotlin. Alongside FIR there is a work on stable frontend API, but for backend part the current situation will probably last for a while. AFAIK not much can be done in this regard.

But only if google would release Compose from AndroidX, that would sill help a lot 🙏

[Colton Idle]

Wait. If I have a separate module with just composables (it's what I currently do) I can keep that kotlin version separate from my app module?

I guess it makes sense I just didn't think of doing that. Seems like that should be straightforward?