The Stack Overflow Podcast Kotlin is more than just the Android house language
11 snips
Sep 5, 2025 Join Jeffrey van Gogh, Director of Engineering for Android Developer Experience at Google and board member of the Kotlin Foundation, as he shares insights on Kotlin's impressive evolution. They dive into Kotlin's multiplatform capabilities beyond Android, showcasing its innovative 'expect actual' system. The conversation touches on Kotlin’s modern features designed to enhance usability and safety for developers transitioning from Java. Jeffrey also discusses the governance structure aimed at community engagement to ensure stability as Kotlin continues to grow.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Early Programmer Roots
- Jeffrey van Gogh started programming on a Commodore 64 and built a BASIC foundation as a child.
- He later wrote an interpreter in Turbo Pascal to plot math functions instead of recompiling constantly.
Kotlin Wins Developers By Feeling Familiar
- Developers who try Kotlin often find it more productive and feature-rich than Java.
- Kotlin regained many conveniences that C# developers missed when working in Java.
Null Safety Cuts Crashes
- Kotlin encodes nullability in the type system to reduce null pointer exceptions at compile time.
- Google data shows Android apps in Kotlin see about 20% fewer NPE-related user crashes than Java apps.