Kotlin Cookbook: A Problem-Focused Approach

by Ken Kousen

Use Kotlin to build Android apps, web applications, and more―while you learn the nuances of this popular language. With this unique cookbook, developers will learn how to apply this Java-based language to their own projects. Both experienced programmers and those new to Kotlin will benefit from the practical recipes in this book. Author Ken Kousen ( Modern Java Recipes ) shows you how to solve problems with Kotlin by concentrating on your own use cases rather than on basic syntax. You provide the context and this book supplies the answers. Already big in Android development, Kotlin can be used anywhere Java is applied, as well as for iOS development, native applications, JavaScript generation, and more. Jump in and build meaningful projects with Kotlin today.

Genres: Technology

251 pages, Paperback

Published December 24, 2019

About the author

I am the author of five books, four about software development and one about managing your manager. My technical books are "Kotlin Cookbook", "Modern Java Recipes", and "Gradle Recipes for Android", all from O'Reilly Media, and "Making Java Groovy" from Manning.

My latest book is called "Help Your Boss Help You" and is all about building a relationship with your manager that gets you what you want from your job when you want it. The book is intended for working professionals, defined as people who currently care more about doing their job well than moving through the ranks of people management, but who still have to deal with managers all the time.

I'm happy to try to answer any questions about any of my books here.

Reviews

[Jeanne Boyarsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Kotlin Cookbook” starts out by saying the target audience is experienced developers who already known an OO language, preferably Java or another JVM language. I'd argue it should be a requirement and not “preerably.” If you don't meet that criteria, get an intro book. If you do meet that criteria, the book is excellent.

Recipe #1 starts by talking about play.kotlinlang.org so you can try examples without installing anything. Chapter 1 also covers a variety of other ways to run Kotlin including Maven and Graal. Many of these assume you know the Java ecosystem. Which is fine assuming you meet the reader critiera.

There are fun examples like Kim/Kanye's kid North (well, Ye now, but he went by Kanye when the book was written.) I also liked the fun fact about JK Rowling's middle name.

A lot of the recipes cover interacting with Java. Or use Java equivalents. Like sequences which are compared to Java streams. Great mental model for Java developers and key differences are highlighted. For example, you can iterate through a sequence more than once. I learned new things like the Nothing class and coercing to restrict a value to a range.

I feel like this should have been called the “Kotlin Cookbook for Java Developers.” I'll take off half a star for that :).

[Hafiz Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book. There are a lot of code blocks that are new to me. Now, I can write more idiomatic and readable code by using some of the techniques from this book. One example which amazed me is the use of fold operator for Fibonacci series. :)
Thank you, Ken Kousen.

[Rafael Manzoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple and vague.

[Red Deinla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned a few more idiomatic ways to implement stuff in Kotlin. I think this can benefit in adding more common problems and more details. The formatting also may not be as good.

[Valentin Vișan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always enjoyed Ken Kousen's style of technical detailing, both in written and spoken form :)