Zero to Kotlin Hero : Introduction

Go from zero to hero in Kotlin 😎.

In my previous post, I highlighted reasons why Kotlin is a good language to learn in 2018, especially for Android development.

A lot of people have been able to adopt this language easily, while some haven’t. For the people that haven’t, I have decided to start a series “Zero to Kotlin Hero”, where I talk extensively about Kotlin one feature at a time.

Zero to Kotlin hero would cover the basics needed to start coding in Kotlin for Android development.

What would I get from this series?

There are a lot of Kotlin books out there, but books could be overwhelming especially for first-timers. In this series, we would be going through Kotlin as a language, Kotlin features and Sample Kotlin code snippets. After the basics, we would build an Android app using Kotlin.

The series would cover:

1. Variables and Data Types in Kotlin
2. Classes in Kotlin
3. Visibility modifiers in Kotlin
4. Kotlin Android Extensions
5. Say goodbye to nulls
6. Kotlin functions
7. Data classes and sealed classes
8. Kotlin Extensions
9. Using Anko

Do I need to have prior Java knowledge?

Honestly, no.

You could be a newbie in Android, that’s fine. Basic programming knowledge and logic would help you grab things faster. But even if you’ve never had to build an Android app in Java, this series would be as comprehensive as possible to help you get by.

What would I need to follow this?

First, good internet access and an IDE. For the first parts of the series before creating the Android app, I’d be using IntelliJ IDEA. Feel free to use any text editor you’re comfortable with. You can find a list of IDEs for Kotlin coders here.

However, Android studio would be needed when it’s time to actually build the app.

How do I get IntelliJ IDEA?

To download IntelliJ IDEA, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the download link.
2. Download the Community version for Windows, MacOS or Linux (It’s pretty good for this series, no need to go Ultimate).
3. On download completion, install the package and you’re good to go.

Some IDEs would require the Kotlin plugin but installing IntelliJ IDEA is straightforward so I would recommend it, especially for first-timers.

Stick around if you want to learn Kotlin for building Android apps (or for any other reason to be honest).

Get ready to know about Kotlin variables in the first article! If you’d love to learn more about Kotlin, check out this great tutorial I found.

I’m sure you’d love Kotlin.