Excerpts from the Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile Beta Roadmap
Excerpts from the Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile Beta Roadmap
In 2021, the relevant team released a video detailing the roadmap for the KMM beta version. The speaker, Ekaterina Petrova, discussed several upgrades from the Alpha to the Beta versions, primarily:
- New memory management mechanism
- Integration tools related to Apple developers
- Adjusting the Hierarchical Project structure to be the default
Typically, you only need to write code for specific platform APIs tailored to the unique features of different platforms. However, when using KMM for shared code development, sometimes you still need to specialize the shared code for different platforms.
An example is in concurrent scenarios, where the Alpha version of KMM could cause problems with memory management and had a steep learning curve. The development team announced in mid-2021 that future Kotlin (Beta version) would optimize this aspect.
Apple Integration
Using KMM in Kotlin projects is “rumored” to be quite friendly already. On the Apple platform, the embedAndSignAppleFrameworkForXcodeTest replaces the manual packForXcodeTask, and the functionality of the CocoaPods GradlePlugin DSL has been enhanced. However, it is mentioned that this feature is expected to be implemented after the Beta release.
The remaining features for Apple project integration have not yet been tested, so they are not discussed here.
KMM Stability for Migration
The transition to beta is scheduled for Spring 2022, and the speaker mentioned that future versions would focus on compatibility, so significant changes that could disrupt your codebase are unlikely (a nod to Swift 1.0…).
Kotlin Beta Roadmap Video
Article at JetBrains:
By Marvin Lin on February 4, 2022.