The New Kotlin Tool by Google Helps to Build the Apps Faster

Nowadays, the mobile has been an inseparable part of one’s life and that is the reason that every business person has now initiated to develop the respective mobile app for their line of products and services. And the IT companies keep on developing and inventing new tools which can help out the developers to develop the mobile apps in a more apt manner and match to the expectations of the end-users. Google, the world-renowned company has recently launched an alpha-version of its Kotlin-Symbol Processing tool (KSP) which helps to build the lightweight plugins for compilers in the Kotlin language which is a modern language for developing applications. KSP is quite similar to Kapt compiler plug-in used for the process of annotation and offers access directly to compiler capabilities of Kotlin.

KSP is well compatible with Kotlin 1.4.30. Also, Kotlin has been recognized by Google for developing the Applications based on Android. This language came up as a good alternative used for building the apps other than building them on Java. And this is the reason why the companies are emphasizing on hire kotlin developers. These developers are well-equipped with in-depth knowledge of working of the tool Kotlin and how it can help to resolve the complex issues coming across during the process of development of mobile applications. One of the best examples is that the engineers at Google wrote 30% of the Google Home App in Kotlin language after translating it from the conventional Java code. 

The Kotlin developers were basically facing the issue of speed and so the major demand from Kotlin developers to Google was to increase the speed of building or development during the process of compilation. Many business firms tend to hire Kotlin App Developers India because of the unmatchable talent found anywhere else. And once the issues related to Kotlin is resolved by Google by introducing the new API, more and more developers are now keen on learning this new Kotlin tool as this helps them to develop the mobile applications at a comparatively faster rate. The Kotlin developers very often compute and install the applications many times a day, thus doing this at a slow speed is very time consuming for them, and thus they looked for some new introduction which can ultimately increase the speed.

Kotlin Symbol Processing (KSP) is such an API which directly codes the Kotlin code that reduces the build speed tax which was imposed by Kapt stub generation. One of the biggest challenges of the Kotlin is that it does not have a native annotation processing system, while Room like annotation processors are widely used on Android and it rely on Java annotation processing compatibility with the helps and support of Kotlin Annotation Processing Tool (KAPT). This was also mentioned by Google in a bulletin which was published on February 10. A library which supports KSP seems similar to the normal annotation processor but of course it is faster. Also, a thing to be noted is that when using KAPT and KSP in the same build then it slows down the raw builds initially. And that is the reason that during the alpha phase, Google advised to maintain KSP and KAPT in the separate modules only.

A VIABLE CHOICE FOR ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT: KOTLIN

Among the mobile users, there are a greater number of people using the Android platform, thus whenever any mobile app is developed, the priority is given to the fact that it should be easily accessible to the Android users.  By making the app available for the Android users only, the business covers more than 50% of the market which can be very fruitful to them in reaching out the maximum number of users at one go. And that is the reason that Kotlin is being preferred by most of the business owners and they are even being benefited from the same. Kotlin has definitely become one of the best and suitable choices for developing android-based applications. Also, this tool should replace KAPT because the number of annotation processors who will adopt KSP increases. But KSP should be compatible to work across different platforms. And so, it is not linked to the JVM. KSP is completely compatible with Kotlin 1.34.0. and acts as a pre-processor framework for Kotlin programs. GitHub has all the details, including source code and documentation for KSP. The developers can easily access this address, go through the KSP playground project to see the actions of KSP. But this API is not completely finished and is still under development hence, it is not advisable to use KSP in the production.

What Google is expecting is that the developers who developed the software modules and Android libraries should replace KAPT and adopt their KSP annotation processors. As of now, KSP supports Moshi experimentally and partially supports Room. Hilt, Dagger, Auto Factory, Gilde are a few others which are in sight but none of them are supported yet.

Since the time the KSP is developed in alpha version, the developers are having a very close look at it and then accordingly they can give the feedback related to their experience of using the tool and what problems or issues they are still facing in the same. And this feedback of the developers can be given by them related to API in the KSP issue tracker. The KSP channel on the Kotlin slack keeps an update of the regular changes being posted by the company. This activity keeps the developers posted of the recent changes brought in the tool and how it will be helpful to them in increasing their efficiency in the overall development process of the website as well as mobile applications.

The regular preview of the developers helps to rectify large numbers of bugs and other related issues in the tool which helps to make it stronger and more effective. And all this has been made possible by the strong and an amazing community of the developers of the Kotlin library. The released API is still under development, and it is usually not advisable to use it until and unless it is finalized or else it will not give the required result as expected by the developers and it will ultimately demoralize the business owners.

CONCLUSION:

The above points clearly signifies the importance of the Kotlin tool and how it has been so useful in developing mobile applications through leading mobile app development company. The regular changes are being made in the API and many rectifications and bug fixation have already been done as suggested by the community of the developers. Thus, the Kotlin library is an important development for the Android developers.