Bug#892842: RFP: kotlin -- Statically typed programming language
Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
* Package name : kotlin
Version : 1.2.30
Upstream Author : JetBrains and open source contributors
* URL : https://kotlinlang.org/
* License : Apache 2
Programming Lang: Kotlin
Description : Statically typed programming language for modern multiplatform applications
Extract from Wikipedia:
Kotlin is a statically-typed programming language that runs on the
Java virtual machine and also can be compiled to JavaScript source
code or use the LLVM compiler infrastructure. While the syntax is not
compatible with Java, Kotlin is designed to interoperate with Java
code and is reliant on Java code from the existing Java Class Library,
such as the collections framework. Kotlin uses aggressive type
inference to determine the type of values and expressions for which
type has been left unstated. This reduces language verbosity relative
to Java, which demands often entirely redundant type specifications.
--
Kotlin has been voted second most loved language in StackOverflow's
2018 survey:
https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted
Note that this is a qualitative survey, Kotlin's actual use is more
similar to Scala or (!) Perl in the survey:
https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/#most-popular-technologies
It's also part of the Android SDK since 3.x. A significant effort has
been made to package the Android SDK in Debian, and it seems
reasonable to further this effort with this popular language.
I have found Kotlin's syntax to be an attractive alternative to
Java. It was indeed designed to provide a way out of the Java
ecosystem which I find interesting in itself.
Kotlin seems to be partly self-hosted: 73% of the source is kotlin,
while 26% is Java:
https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin
It does require a Java JVM to function, or can be compiled with LLVM
as well.
I do not plan on maintaining this package, I just thought it would be
useful to track efforts for its (eventual?) inclusion inside Debian in
the BTS.
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