JavaScript vs Kotlin

Overview

JavaScript

Stacks392.3K

Followers284.0K

Votes8.1K

Kotlin

Stacks17.7K

Followers11.9K

Votes650

GitHub Stars51.5K

Forks6.1K

JavaScript vs Kotlin: What are the differences?

Introduction

This Markdown code provides a comparison between JavaScript and Kotlin, highlighting their key differences. The following paragraphs outline the specific dissimilarities between these two programming languages.

Purpose and Usage: JavaScript is a scripting language primarily used for developing client-side web applications. It is executed in web browsers and allows for dynamic content manipulation. On the other hand, Kotlin is a statically typed programming language used for developing Android applications, server-side applications, and other types of software. Kotlin offers various features to enhance code safety and conciseness compared to JavaScript.
Syntax and Structure: JavaScript follows a loose and flexible syntax, allowing for easy prototyping and dynamic typing. It supports both functional and object-oriented programming paradigms. Kotlin, however, follows a stricter syntax with static typing, offering improved code readability and maintainability. Kotlin is known for its concise and expressive syntax, reducing boilerplate code and enhancing coding productivity.
Type System: JavaScript is dynamically typed, meaning variable types can change during runtime. It lacks a robust type system, which can lead to errors during development or execution. On the contrary, Kotlin is a statically typed language, ensuring type safety during compilation. This prevents type-related errors and allows for better understanding of the codebase.
Null Safety: JavaScript does not have built-in null safety mechanisms, which can result in null pointer exceptions and unexpected behavior. Kotlin, on the other hand, enforces null safety by design. It introduces nullable and non-nullable types, reducing the risk of null pointer exceptions and facilitating safer coding practices.
Interoperability: JavaScript is highly compatible with HTML, CSS, and web technologies, making it the standard choice for web development. It can be easily embedded within HTML markup and interact with DOM elements. Kotlin, although it can be transpiled to JavaScript, is primarily used for building native Android applications. It can integrate with existing Java code seamlessly, making it a popular choice for Android development.
Tooling and Ecosystem: JavaScript has a vast ecosystem of libraries, frameworks, and tools, making it highly flexible and versatile for web development. It has a massive community and extensive support for various platforms and environments. Kotlin, while rapidly growing, has a smaller ecosystem, with a focus on native Android development. It offers powerful tools and frameworks specific to Android, providing a more cohesive development experience.

In Summary, JavaScript and Kotlin differ in their purpose and usage, syntax and structure, type system, null safety, interoperability, and tooling and ecosystem.

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Advice on JavaScript, Kotlin

Nick

Building cool things on the internet 🛠️ at Stream

Sep 5, 2019

Review

I work at Stream and I'm immensely proud of what our team is working on here at the company. Most recently, we announced our Android SDK accompanied by an extensive tutorial for Java and Kotlin. The tutorial covers just about everything you need to know when it comes to using our Android SDK for Stream Chat. The Android SDK touches many features offered by Stream Chat – more specifically, typing status, read state, file uploads, threads, reactions, editing messages, and commands. Head over to https://getstream.io/tutorials/android-chat/ and give it a whirl!

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Comments

Muhamed

Apr 28, 2020

Needs adviceon

Python

JavaScript

Django

I am currently learning web development with Python and JavaScript course by CS50 Harvard university. It covers python, Flask, Django, SQL, Travis CI, javascript,HTML ,CSS and more. I am very interested in Flutter app development. Can I know what is the difference between learning these above-mentioned frameworks vs learning flutter directly? I am planning to learn flutter so that I can do both web development and app development. Are there any perks of learning these frameworks before flutter?

737k views737k

Comments

Zuriel

Jun 7, 2020

Needs advice

Can anyone help me decide what's best for app development or even android Oreo development? I'm in a state dilemma at the moment. I want to do Android programming, not necessarily web development. I have heard a lot of people recommend one of these, and it seems that both the tools can do the job. Which language would you choose?

291k views291k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

JavaScript	Kotlin
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.	Kotlin is a statically typed programming language for the JVM, Android and the browser, 100% interoperable with Java
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 51.5K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 6.1K
Stacks 392.3K	Stacks 17.7K
Followers 284.0K	Followers 11.9K
Votes 8.1K	Votes 650
Pros & Cons
Pros 1671 Can be used on frontend/backend 1497 It's everywhere 1163 Lots of great frameworks 899 Fast 746 Light weight Cons 24 A constant moving target, too much churn 20 Horribly inconsistent 16 Javascript is the New PHP 9 No ability to monitor memory utilitization 8 Shows Zero output in case of ANY error	Pros 73 Interoperable with Java 55 Functional Programming support 51 Null Safety 46 Official Android support 44 Backed by JetBrains Cons 7 Java interop makes users write Java in Kotlin 4 Frequent use of {} keys 2 Nonullpointer Exception 2 Hard to make teams adopt the Kotlin style 1 No boiler plate code

What are some alternatives to JavaScript, Kotlin?

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Swift

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.

Related Comparisons

JavaScript vs Kotlin: What are the differences?

Introduction

Purpose and Usage: JavaScript is a scripting language primarily used for developing client-side web applications. It is executed in web browsers and allows for dynamic content manipulation. On the other hand, Kotlin is a statically typed programming language used for developing Android applications, server-side applications, and other types of software. Kotlin offers various features to enhance code safety and conciseness compared to JavaScript.
Syntax and Structure: JavaScript follows a loose and flexible syntax, allowing for easy prototyping and dynamic typing. It supports both functional and object-oriented programming paradigms. Kotlin, however, follows a stricter syntax with static typing, offering improved code readability and maintainability. Kotlin is known for its concise and expressive syntax, reducing boilerplate code and enhancing coding productivity.
Type System: JavaScript is dynamically typed, meaning variable types can change during runtime. It lacks a robust type system, which can lead to errors during development or execution. On the contrary, Kotlin is a statically typed language, ensuring type safety during compilation. This prevents type-related errors and allows for better understanding of the codebase.
Null Safety: JavaScript does not have built-in null safety mechanisms, which can result in null pointer exceptions and unexpected behavior. Kotlin, on the other hand, enforces null safety by design. It introduces nullable and non-nullable types, reducing the risk of null pointer exceptions and facilitating safer coding practices.
Interoperability: JavaScript is highly compatible with HTML, CSS, and web technologies, making it the standard choice for web development. It can be easily embedded within HTML markup and interact with DOM elements. Kotlin, although it can be transpiled to JavaScript, is primarily used for building native Android applications. It can integrate with existing Java code seamlessly, making it a popular choice for Android development.
Tooling and Ecosystem: JavaScript has a vast ecosystem of libraries, frameworks, and tools, making it highly flexible and versatile for web development. It has a massive community and extensive support for various platforms and environments. Kotlin, while rapidly growing, has a smaller ecosystem, with a focus on native Android development. It offers powerful tools and frameworks specific to Android, providing a more cohesive development experience.

In Summary, JavaScript and Kotlin differ in their purpose and usage, syntax and structure, type system, null safety, interoperability, and tooling and ecosystem.

JavaScript vs Kotlin

Overview