The Kotlin Programming Language

The main design goals behind this project are

• to create a Java-compatible language,
• make it compile as fast as Java,
• make it safer than Java, i.e. statically check for common pitfalls such as null pointer dereference,
• make it more concise than Java by supporting local type-inference, first-class functions (closures), extension functions, mixins and first-class delegation, etc;
• and, keeping the useful level of expressiveness (see above), make it way simpler than the most mature competitor—Scala.

The compiler is being developed alongside with an IntelliJ IDEA integration, so the users will get IDE support as soon as they get the compiler (first public version is planned for the end of 2011).

Why yet another language?

Evolution of Java is problematic due to legacy issues (e.g., closures are being postponed over and over again), so the community is looking for more state-of-the-art alternatives.

http://jetbrains.com/kotlin