Kotlin Onboarding: Introduction
This course is designed for novices in programming and focuses on the basic concepts of the Kotlin language. In the learning process you will be creating small pieces of your project step by step.
About this course
There's also plenty of room for individual creativity: at the end of each lesson, an additional similar project will be offered. It includes all the lesson topics but does not contain the theory part.
All topics will be accompanied by links to the official Kotlin documentation, which you can read later. After this course, you will be ready to write basic console applications in the Kotlin-like style.
This course runs directly in your
JetBrains IDE
Content
- Introduction
- Program entry point
- Built-in Functions
- Variables
- Read user input
- Project
- Creating a "chat" application
- Types of variables
- Custom functions
- Loops
- if operator
- Collections
- Random
- Finishing base game
- Creating the game
- Game core
- Finishing the game
- Multi row strings
- when expression
- String functions
- Null-safety
- Finishing the game
- Patterns generator project
- Helpers
- Canvas generator
- Canvas gaps generator
- Finishing the app
Note
This course does not provide a detailed explanation of the basic concepts, like variables: it just shows how to use them in Kotlin and can briefly remind you of the definitions.
How it looks like
Getting started
1
Install the JetBrains Toolbox App
The course requires the latest version of the Toolbox application. If you don’t have it, you can download it here. If your JetBrains Toolbox version is 2.5 or older, you should upgrade it.
2
Launch the course
The Toolbox app will automatically open. A pop-up will ask you to click Allow to proceed. Once the remote IDE is open, simply click Start to begin the course.
FAQ and troubleshooting
Yes, you will need the JetBrains Toolbox App and a JetBrains IDE.
But don’t worry! Just click the Open course button and then select Allow in the resultant popup to install the JetBrains Toolbox App. We've taken care of all the necessary settings, and the app will handle the rest of the setup for you.
The JetBrains Toolbox App checks which IDE is compatible with your course and whether it is installed on your computer. If you have the necessary IDE installed, the app will open it. If not, JetBrains Toolbox will initiate the installation, prioritizing free community editions.
Yes, the JetBrains Toolbox App is essential even if you already have a JetBrains IDE. It automatically prepares your IDE for studying by installing the essential plugins and updating the IDE if necessary.
Please make sure your version of the JetBrains Toolbox App is 1.28 or newer. To update, open the app and click Update Toolbox App to 2.x.x., or download the latest version here.
- Enable the Kotlin plugin:
- Go to Settings/Preferences | Plugins | Installed.
- Make sure that the Kotlin plugin is enabled.
- Add an SDK:
- From the main menu, select File | Project Structure | Platform Settings | SDKs.
- To add an SDK, click +, select the necessary SDK, and specify its home directory in the popup dialog.
- Download JDK (if needed):
- If you don't have the necessary JDK on your computer, select Download JDK.
- In the next dialog, specify the JDK vendor and version, change the installation path if required, and click Download.
For more information, see our Help article.
In-IDE learning