Kotlin in Action

This book is an exceptionally well written deep dive into the Kotlin programming language. The concepts are presented in clear, concise language that flows well and is easy to understand without sacrificing any detail. For a 300 page book, I'm surprised at how in depth it went with its topics. Perhaps that is a testament to how easy Kotlin is to use, or maybe it was because the book used the reader's existing knowledge of Java as a starting point. Which brings me to an important point. Be warned that this book is written with Java developers in mind, so you will probably want to find another book if you don't already know Java pretty well. Also be aware that this was written for Kotlin 1.0, and as of this review we are already well into 1.3. I found that very little has changed as far as the topics already covered in the book (mostly minor things), but there are some new language features like coroutines that were added since the book's release that you will need to look into separately. You can go to the Kotlin website and review the list of what changed in the documentation. Go to "Learn" -> "What's new" and it will give a detailed description of all the new language features in 1.1 - 1.3 so you can catch up on the newest features. Also, FYI I found out you can download the e-book from the Manning site for free if you get this physical book. That's a little bonus I wasn't aware of when I bought my copy.

I pretty much never write reviews, but felt like I should write something about this book. I think this book is excellent, one of the best programming books I have ever read. It is exactly what it claims to be -- an intro to Kotlin for a Java developer. The explanations are crystal clear and the examples strike the right balance of being short and to the point yet still very informative. That's not easy to do and many technical books get it wrong. I won't call out its name, but I bought another Kotlin book before this one that I thought was awful -- full of confusing and somewhat pointless deep dives into topics and examples that didn't do much to highlight the language itself. This book gets it right. The topics make sense. The flow of the book makes sense. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn Kotlin.

I got this book to understand Kotlin on it's own. I am actually learning Android development but I found it easier to focus on Kotlin first then introduce Android as I go. I know my way around java fundamentals which is key to understanding Kotlin. There are some stuff that I haven't worked with in Java that this book digs into but it wasn't a challenge to pause and understand how it works in java before returning to Kotlin. Some things are similar btwn the two languages and the authors use a few lines to explain the syntax if needed, otherwise they assume you know the java equivalent and skip over it. I will say, as with any book you need to practice the concepts so don't expect to learn everything Kotlin by reading this book. Kotlin has so many resources including practice stuff that I was able to use this book + other resources to learn the language. In my opinion great book for beginner and even possibly intermediate learning. **side-note** I did have to return my first book b/c the copy had some illegible sentences. It was like the printer was running out of ink. I got my replacement 2 days later and had no issues with it.

We started using Kotlin in 2019 and I used this book to introduce the team to it. It was a bit outdated even then, but it was well written, well organized, and very clear. We've done everything we can in Kotlin since then so it definitely worked!

I'm learning mobile development with Android. Years ago, I attempted to make an Android App using java but found java...well, frankly, boring, and wordy. Although i finished that app, I decided to spend more time on backend systems and learning a variety of other languages in the process. I've learned rudimentary Haskell, C, C++, Python, Scala, Swift, and some couple more. I find that I like Kotlin. I find its syntax easy to learn, intuititve, and capable of building higher level complexities. It works on the mature JVM is is 100% compatible with Java. So in my journey to learn more and go deeper, I realized I needed a book that comprehensively covers the language, explains the design choices made by its creators, and discusses various aspects of the language one wouldn't immediately learn. And what better book to learn from than one written by two of the original contributors to Kotln. I really love this book, and expect to be referring back to it for many years to come.

The book does a very good job of explaining the nuances of the language. It is well written and provides good examples. Walks you from the basic to more advance features. Note: This book does not cover coroutines which were added to language later.

Just read the first chapter, I think every developer from a Java background will like this book. So far, I love it! Especially if you are an Android dev, then this book is definitely for you to start the journey of embracing Kotlin.

This is a great place to start if you need to get up to speed with Kotlin fast. It's written clearly and concisely and is great for the Java developer looking to change over. If you're a beginner to programming, this probably isn't the book for you. I did dock a star because it is rather out of date. It's hard to keep a printed book updated when a language is so new and kind of a moving target but there are a lot of big changes that you will miss.

Un excelente libro para aprender la filosofía del lenguaje de programación Kotlin. El libro abarca todas las aplicaciones del lenguaje, no solamente a las aplicaciones móviles. Muy bueno!

Questo libro mi ha molto soddisfatto (come in genere i libri sulla programmazione della Manning). Gli autori hanno fatto parte del team di sviluppo di Kotlin. Prima di comperarlo ho consultato molti libri su Kotlin e questo mi è parso il migliore. Credo che richieda come prerequisito una certa confidenza con Java, ma per il resto spiega anche alcuni argomenti piuttosto complessi meglio di ogni altro manuale (e della doc di kotlinlang). Non tratta invece argomenti come le Coroutine o gli approcci più idiomatici per Android, per i quali consiglio "Kotlin for Android App Development" di Sommerhoff (che contiene un'ottima introduzione sulle Coroutines), però Kotlin in Action rimane il mio manuale di riferimento.

Parfait pour une vision globale et claire du langage Kotlin. En anglais mais très accessible. Je recommande mais il faut avoir déjà des bases en Java

Excelente livro para quem quer começar a entender Kotlin. Vai do conhecimento básico e dos casos de uso para os mais complexos até o fim.

I'm very happy with this book so far. Concise and to the point. And the best part? You get the e-book in different formats for free! That was a really nice surprise.