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Great now let them bring the Kotlin Virtual Machine.

Ah, that is what Google is doing for them.



No need for this, there's bunch of existing virtual machines. JVM is pretty nice actually.


Sure there is, Kotlin users typically bash Java and how much better it is, so I am waiting for JetBrains to release KVM, Kotlin/Native so far loses in all frontends against AOT Java based toolchains.


I dont understand the selling point for a Kotlin VM or Native compilation

Isnt the whole selling point for Kotlin, is that it is a JVM hosted languages, that give you access to all Java Libraries, framework and tools .. but purportedly .. is an easier, nicer , more language language compared to Java, Scala or the other JVM languages

Why go elsewhere, why go native, or develop their own VM ? Any improvement in the JVM benefits Kotlin, correct or am I missing something ?


Apparently no, that is why they started Kotlin/Native instead of ping back into AOT compilers for Java, and in Kotlin forums tends to exist an high disregard for anything Java.


Actually the story I heard is that Kotlin/Native exists simply because Intel was laying off a compiler team in St Petersburg around that time, so they came on the market as a group and could be picked up easily and quickly. And they wanted to push into iOS.

Could they have done a SubstrateVM/GraalVM competitor instead? Yeah probably, but that's a very different project to adding another backend to Kotlin. Given they already decided to make Kotlin "multi-platform" (i.e. js backend) instead of making Java more portable, it then made sense to go the whole way.

JetBrains also developed TeaVM and arguably it'd have been better to just invest in JVM related tooling, and keep Kotlin as a JVM language. But I think they like the idea of it being its own ecosystem. Who wouldn't, in their position?


> Kotlin users typically bash Java

You mean the Java programming language, or the Java Virtual Machine?


Both, given that 80% of most JVM implementations are Java as well.


That doesn't sound right. Why would Kotlin programmers dislike the JVM platform just because it tends to be implemented in Java (and C++)?

The Python and Lua interpreters are written in C. V8 is written in C++, SpiderMonkey in C/C++. The Rust compiler backend is LLVM, written in C++. The GNAT Ada compiler is powered by GCC, written in C. So what? These implementations work fine.

Directly competing with the JVM makes little sense. Countless millions of dollars of effort have been poured into OpenJDK.


Well apparently they think otherwise given the amount of Java bashing I see in most Kotlin related forums.

Your list was a bit cherry picked, GNAT frontend is Ada and other Ada compilers are fully bootstrapped.

And GCC has been C++ for quite some time as well.

Plus There are JVMs like JikesRVM and GraalVM, 100% Java.


Because it's not true.

JVM is fine piece of engineering and Kotlin devs have no problem with it.


Apparently they do, otherwise the forums wouldn't be full with Java this and Java that.

Somehow those Kotlin devs have missed the boat that JVMs implementations have between 80% and 100% Java code, depending on which implementation from the top 10 JVMs one is talking about.


You're basically trolling at this point. Java the language has major shortcomings, including an absolutely neutered and broken type system. Kotlin is an improvement, but still limited by its Java roots.

The JVM is a specific product. When people criticize Java, they are almost always only referring to the language called "Java".


Kotlin fanboys are the ones trolling, good luck on Android playground, that it everything that will be left of Kotlin in 10 years time.

JVM does not exist without the code written in Java that encompasses between 80% to 100%, depending on the implementation.

Maybe those worshiping Kotlin should take some lessons in JVM implementations, before bashing the infrastructure that made Kotlin possible.


You're building strawmen. Nobody is bashing the infrastructure. As in, nobody is bashing the JVM. They're (we're) bashing Java-the-language.

1. The first JVM was surely not written in Java. Therefore JVM != Java

2. A JVM can be written in any language. Therefore JVM != Java

You could write a JVM in brainfuck if you wanted to. That doesn't mean Kotlin isn't a much more sane language than brainfuck.


Well, they're already actively developing Kotlin Native...




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