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The worst thing about kotlin is the intellij lock in. VSCode support is exceptionally poor and that makes using modern AI tooling (like cursor) a pain.


I agree, but I can strongly recommend Claude Code with the Intellij plugin. Actually works pretty great for kotlin!

And, JetBrains finally started working on an open language server. It's not perfect but it makes it bearable to at least edit Kotlin in Cursor/VS Code.

https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/27310-claude-code-beta- https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlin-lsp


I just have Cursor open in another window for the agent mode while I do my editing with intellij (or other jetbrains products).

I would never voluntary do any editing in VS Code or forks of it. It is just so slugish on large files. Plus there is always subtle things that annoy me, I can't even describe it, it just feels off. I hope Zed takes off as it is a bit more tolerable though still not there yet.


Won’t be true for long any more since they just officially announced they’ll be releasing the language server.


Java has also improved greatly since JDK 7 so the need for JDK languages that are Java, but just a little better, is less than it was.


Kotlin ecosystem extends way beyond the Java runtime. I have apps developed in Kotlin running in browsers and iOS, in addition to Android.


You can do that in Java too. TeaVM, JavaFX, pick your poison.


Kotlin is much better than "Java, but just a little better."


Kotlin has everything. A language isn't better just because it has more.

Its great for DSLs though.


Java is pretty good for DSLs too.


Language.Builder().getOh().getYes().getJava().getIsSoNice().setFor(() -> { return "DSLs";});

No trailing lambdas, no infix operators, no @DslMarkers, no top level functions, and an infinite list of examples of Java verbosity making even the smallest thing look like an ancient greek epic. Java is utterly terrible for DSLs.


   Language {
       oh {
           yes {
              Java {
                  isSoNice
           }
       }
   }
You can contrive awfulness in any language.


The awfulness of one style of Java DSL is the awfulness of Lisp, that is

  building(of(S("expressions"),everything())


Not going to lie, my brain doesn't really comprehend lisp. So the joke (or point?) is way over my head.


Jetbrains is working on an LSP: https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlin-lsp It was announced at KotlinConf 2025.


When did you last use IntelliJ? It has excellent AI tooling.




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