If Kotlin can set up adequate tooling and performance in native and JavaScript backends, its approach of building libraries for multiple platforms could be a new wrinkle, and fulfill the "write once, run anywhere" better than Java ever did.
As it stands, it's _not_ easy to use the multiple platform setup. You really need to be both an expert in Kotlin, Gradle (and their plugins are _barely_ documented), and the target platform.
But if the build process becomes easy, and, they can build a rich ecosystem that basically can create abstraction layers on top of the target platforms, I see it going far. It's still not there yet, but it's moving quickly.
I'm still in a "wait and see" place with Kotlin. I've enjoyed working with it on the JVM, where the tooling is fantastic. But the JS and native toolchains are still not up to my standards. Just being another JVM language isn't good enough for me.
As it stands, it's _not_ easy to use the multiple platform setup. You really need to be both an expert in Kotlin, Gradle (and their plugins are _barely_ documented), and the target platform.
But if the build process becomes easy, and, they can build a rich ecosystem that basically can create abstraction layers on top of the target platforms, I see it going far. It's still not there yet, but it's moving quickly.
I'm still in a "wait and see" place with Kotlin. I've enjoyed working with it on the JVM, where the tooling is fantastic. But the JS and native toolchains are still not up to my standards. Just being another JVM language isn't good enough for me.