Kotlin native can be compiled into objective/swift. but not c#, any reason for that?

# getting-started

[to-elixir]

Kotlin native can be compiled into objective/swift. but not c#, any reason for that?

[Josh Eldridge]

It compiles into objective-c so that it can be used as a framework in the iOS application, I'm not sure what use case there would be to compile to C#. C# isn't necessary to run on any platform

[to-elixir]

Yes. It's not necessary to use C# even in windows. But this is not related with my question. Is is very hard to compile it into c# than objective c?

[to-elixir]

Ktor doesn't support windows too.

[Josh Eldridge]

🤷 I'd be curious to know what the roadmap for that is. I was unaware there isn't native windows support outside of the JVM

[Josh Eldridge]

This was just released and includes some useful info I believe https://blog.jetbrains.com/kotlin/2023/02/update-regarding-kotlin-native-targets/

[to-elixir]

1. mingwX86 – Support for this target requires a lot of resources while user demand remains low. Furthermore, mingwX64 is better suited for the majority of known use cases anyway.

[to-elixir]

So windows support is quite harder than other platforms. I'd like to know the reasons

[to-elixir]

Try to ask chatgpt

[to-elixir]

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[to-elixir]

@Josh Eldridge

[Josh Eldridge]

Good to know

[Landry Norris]

Note that dropping mingwx86 doesn't drop support for windows as a whole, but just 32 bit support. 64 bit windows is supported using mingwx64.

[Landry Norris]

To support C# interop directly, we'd need a new backend that compiles to C#'s binary format, similar to Java bytecode. This would be easier after K2 is out, but still a lot of work.

[dmitriy.novozhilov]

What is the motivation to support compilation of Kotlin code to CIL and C# interop?

[Adam S]

@to-elixir you might find some more technical information in the project docs https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/blob/master/kotlin-native/README.md

[to-elixir]

@dmitriy.novozhilov About your feedback: What is the motivation to support compilation of Kotlin code to CIL and C# interop?

The same question I can ask too: What is the motivation to support compilation of Kotlin code to Objective C/Swift?
Why not just compile into C native in mac too? People can create app in mac by C/C++. right?

So that's my question. if it can support objective c/swift. why not support c# too?

[dmitriy.novozhilov]

What is the motivation to support compilation of Kotlin code to Objective C/Swift?

It is simple: multiplatform mobile developement
Also this statement is not fully correct. K/Native does not compile into Objective C. It compiles into LLVM bitcode, which then compiled into native libs, which can be called from any native language, like C, C++, Objective C, Swift and even Rust (I didn't tried but it should work)
On the other hand C# is compiled into CIL, which implies quite a lot of work for the team. Compiler should understand CIL libraries and be able to produce CIL bytecode. And effort of it is unknown. How many C# developers want to write in Kotlin instead of C#? What Kotlin can suggest to C# developers?

[to-elixir]

@dmitriy.novozhilov Got it. The project that I'm doing should support ios/mac/android/windows. These platforms have some common code which should be shared. and each platform have some individual implementation. And it's easier and more productivity to use c# on windows for some reasons. For instance. encryption/decryption logic, scan bluetooth ble. And now I use some bridge way to call C functions which is produced by kotlin native from c#.

[to-elixir]

So the motivation to support c# is: It's more productivity and easier by c# than C native.

[dmitriy.novozhilov]

I understand that such usecases exist. But Kotlin team has limited resources, and we need to manage it carefully.
How many Kotlin users would be happier if we implement C# interop? Or it's better to focus on improving existing plarforms?
At this moment not sparing resources on new platforms feels more reasonable