An Engineer's musings
Notes on building software — mostly Kotlin and the JVM, with the occasional tangent. Each post digs into how a language feature actually works and why it matters in day-to-day code, often through the lens of someone coming from Java.
Latest posts
-
Unchecked and Unbothered: How Kotlin Rethinks Java's Exception Handling Kotlin drops checked exceptions entirely. Here's what that changes day to day, and the compiler trickery that makes it work. -
Kotlin Smart Casts: Stop Telling the Compiler What It Already Knows How Kotlin's smart casts remove the check-then-cast tax from everyday code, and the rules that decide when they kick in. -
Enums in Kotlin: Small, Useful, and More Powerful Than They Look Kotlin enums feel familiar coming from Java, but they can carry data, behavior, and exhaustive when-handling. A build-up from the basics. -
Kotlin's when Is the New switch — And if, And instanceof Kotlin's when quietly replaces switch, long if/else ladders, and instanceof-with-cast. A tour of the parts that matter.