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Kotlin 1.2.60 comes with native compiler binaries

114 points| dleskov | 7 years ago |github.com

67 comments

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floatboth|7 years ago

Not to be confused with https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin-native — this is the Java version compiled with Excelsior JET, a proprietary AOT Java compiler thing.

_old_dude_|7 years ago

I wonder why they have not used jlink + jaotc ?

Maven is already able to compile a the code with Java 6/Java 8 and the module-info with Java 9. With jlink, you can then create your own jdk and AOT the part of the code you want with jaotc.

Maybe those tools are too new and the perf are not great ?

maaaats|7 years ago

So it's the compiler that's native, not the output. Or?

mlevental|7 years ago

sorry dumb question (i think that answer is yes): can i use this to build a statically linked binary of my kotlin app?

hondadriver|7 years ago

Jetbrains is like a new Borland. I hope they don’t end the same...

h1d|7 years ago

What does that mean?

rooam-dev|7 years ago

Is it just me or it's strange that there are so many IDE related fixes in a programming language release?

skocznymroczny|7 years ago

I think it's a symptom of times changing. People don't want to code in vi/nano anymore. A general purpose language launching today is expected to have a good support in an IDE. At least autocompletion, support for building and debugging, refactoring if possible. Also people prefer to have a one well working IDE plugin than several half-baked ones that don't offer much more than syntax highlighting. That's why IDE plugins are becoming important part of language development, either through IDE specific plugins like IntelliJ ones or more generic solutions such as language servers.

skrebbel|7 years ago

Isn't that fantastic? The whole idea that developer productivity (and thus, tool support) shouldn't be a part of programming language design has been flawed from the beginning and I'm happy times are finally changing.

kodablah|7 years ago

It's not just you, and it becomes a huge pain for those that do lots of deep JVM development with Kotlin. I run into multiple language issues daily, and many of them are just undocumented facets of the language that you find YouTrack issues for.

Many many corner cases are not accounted for, and the way Kotlin is under-spec'd and developed with so many of the IntelliJ libraries, you'll never see any independently developed implementation.

This is not to say the language isn't great, it is. It's only heavy development while focused on lower level aspects that this becomes a constant theme.

kevinherron|7 years ago

I believe those fixes are for the IDE plugin they release in parallel with every Kotlin release.

floatboth|7 years ago

Well, it's a language created by an IDE company…

jillesvangurp|7 years ago

Not so strange if you realize that an IDE needs to do essentially the same type of things as a compiler in order to offer things like refactorings, autocompletion, etc.

Idea developed Kotlin as a better Java. Most of their IDE is now written in it. Deep integration with the IDE was a design goal from day 1.

They release the IDE plugin and compiler with the same version number. They are basically developed together. I usually find out about new Kotlin releases because my IDE prompts me to update the plugin. Happened to me this morning with 1.2.61.