- There is Jetpack Compose currently, for Desktop, Web, and Android
- And Kotlin Native putting a large portion of resources into Skia bindings (JetBrains calls the lib "Skiko" https://github.com/JetBrains/skiko)
It's very clear (and there are some employees which have confirmed this IIRC) that they are working on "Jetpack Compose Everywhere" that runs on iOS as well, from a single codebase. Skiko Kotlin Native lets you use Skia to render on the web as well, if you compile to WASM target.
There's the big Kotlin event going on right now, where they just announced the new WASM backend and changes in their compiler + IR commonizing/restructuring ("K2").
The net result is that you wind up with a single language that you can use to write your backend API, your UI code (Jetpack Compose app deployed across Web/Android/iOS/Mac/Win/Linux, or transpile to JS/TS if you just want a web app, etc) and with Kotlin Native even your native, low-level code to integrate with existing C/C++ etc ecosystem.
KN already does automatic bindgen for C and Swift headers, they have direct C++ interop (like Swift does) on their future roadmap too:
All of this is mostly possible already -- I can do the same thing using IE Java, GraalVM, and a transpiler like Google's j2cl or bck2brwser (which is what Gluon uses for JavaFX on the web). Including the "native" part.
IE, here's a contribution I made to get GraalVM producing native binaries using Skia from the JVM + JNI Jetbrains Skia library (and even invoking my Java app methods as a .dll from C++)
Or one just uses JVM implementations instead, and yes they exist for all Kotlin target flavours, including iOS.
JetBrains wants to go big with Kotlin, and be a language vendor, lets see how they manage outside Android, where they aren't the godfather chosen language.
I've only used Kotlin for serverside development (Redhat's Quarkus framework) and experimentally Kotlin Native, though it definitely still has the reputation as "That Android language" for sure
Comments
Ah, I see what you're saying now.
sighYeah. BUT! I am very bullish on Kotlin. Think it's probably the most exciting language evolving right now.
I went on a few-tweet minirant here about why:
https://twitter.com/GavinRayDev/status/1443279425311805440
But the tl;dr is that:
It's very clear (and there are some employees which have confirmed this IIRC) that they are working on "Jetpack Compose Everywhere" that runs on iOS as well, from a single codebase. Skiko Kotlin Native lets you use Skia to render on the web as well, if you compile to WASM target.There's the big Kotlin event going on right now, where they just announced the new WASM backend and changes in their compiler + IR commonizing/restructuring ("K2").
- https://blog.jetbrains.com/kotlin/2021/10/the-road-to-the-k2...
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqz9sKXatw
The net result is that you wind up with a single language that you can use to write your backend API, your UI code (Jetpack Compose app deployed across Web/Android/iOS/Mac/Win/Linux, or transpile to JS/TS if you just want a web app, etc) and with Kotlin Native even your native, low-level code to integrate with existing C/C++ etc ecosystem.
KN already does automatic bindgen for C and Swift headers, they have direct C++ interop (like Swift does) on their future roadmap too:
(Ctrl+F "interoperability")
https://kotlinlang.org/docs/roadmap.html#roadmap-details
All of this is mostly possible already -- I can do the same thing using IE Java, GraalVM, and a transpiler like Google's j2cl or bck2brwser (which is what Gluon uses for JavaFX on the web). Including the "native" part.
IE, here's a contribution I made to get GraalVM producing native binaries using Skia from the JVM + JNI Jetbrains Skia library (and even invoking my Java app methods as a .dll from C++)
https://github.com/HumbleUI/JWM/issues/158
But Kotlin is pushing the hardest to make this whole platform/stack from native <-> desktop <-> mobile <-> browser a seamless, unified experience.
And you can feel it, when you try to do the "whole stack, every platform, one language" thing.
Sorry for the rant and wall of text!
Or one just uses JVM implementations instead, and yes they exist for all Kotlin target flavours, including iOS.
JetBrains wants to go big with Kotlin, and be a language vendor, lets see how they manage outside Android, where they aren't the godfather chosen language.
I've only used Kotlin for serverside development (Redhat's Quarkus framework) and experimentally Kotlin Native, though it definitely still has the reputation as "That Android language" for sure