Kotlin Native Fast Track

Kotlin is an excellent option for JVM development is now the preferred language for Android. Using Kotlin Native while working with platforms where Virtual Machines are not applicable can be your best choice because Kotlin is a powerful yet simplistic language.

Kotlin Native makes use of LLVM to generate native instructions that run on the target platform, such as MacOS, ARM, and WebAssembly.

What You’ll Learn

➜ How to use Kotlin with native applications and libraries written in C, C++, Objective-C, Swift

➜ How to generate Kotlin library wrappers using headers from other languages

➜ How to consume Kotlin Native libraries from other environments

➜ Learn about the wider Kotlin ecosystem and create multi-platform projects for JVM, Android, JS and Native platforms

➜ How to use Kotlin to create native apps, frameworks and libraries

➜ How to build hierarchical Gradle multi-platform projects

Prerequisites

➜ We recommend that attendees of this course have knowledge of Kotlin.

➜ Basic knowledge of C and C++ terminology is recommended but not required.

Course Outline

Kotlin Native – Introduction

Expanding Kotlin beyond the JVM
Understanding the LLVM Compiler Tools
Platforms supported by Kotlin Native
JVM functionality not available in Native
Choosing between the CLion and IntelliJ IDEs
Deconstructing a simple native project

Interoperating with C Libraries

Working with the provided platform libraries
Importing headers from external C libraries
Making sense of Kotlin types for native data
The role of CVariables, CPointers and CValues
Exchanging string data between Kotlin and C
Representing C data structures using CStructs
Memory management via alloc, free & memScoped
Invoking Kotlin callacks from C and vice versa
Using StableRef to extend object lifetimes

Interoperating with Objective-C / Swift

Working with the provided platform libraries
Importing headers from Objective-C / Swift
What Swift features are not supported
How Swift APIs are mapped to Kotlin

Multithreading and Coroutines

The risks of shared mutable state
Limitations on sharing data across threads
Initialising the runtime when creating native threads
Utilising Kotlin’s built-in Worker type
Consuming results via Future objects
Freezing data and breaking the rules using the Atomic types
Transferring object ownership between threads
Limits on using coroutines in Kotlin Native

Creating Multiplatform Gradle Projects

Choosing between the Groovy and Kotlin DSLs
The Kotlin Multiplatform Gradle Plugin
Targeting different native platforms
The default folder naming conventions
Specifying repos and project dependencies
Controlling compiler and linker options
Creating hierarchies and sub-project