Which Language Wins Android Development? Java vs Groovy vs Scala vs Kotlin

Comparison Method

Each language implementation uses minimal dependencies.

Dependency Report

Required packages per language:

Java : com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1

Groovy : com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1, org.codehaus.groovy:groovy:2.4.5:grooid, org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-json:2.4.5

Scala : com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1, org.scala-lang:scala-library:2.11.7, org.scaloid:scaloid_2.11:4.0

Kotlin : com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1, org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.0.0-beta-4584

Analysis Report

Statistics on line count, size, compile speed, and method count are illustrated (images shown below).

Code Comparison

Find View

TextView title = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1);

def title = view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1) as TextView

val title = view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1).asInstanceOf[TextView]

val title = view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1) as TextView

OnClickListener

button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { @Override void onClick(final View v) { /* do something */ } })

button.onClickListener = { /* do something */ }

button.onClick((v: View) => { /* do something */ })

button.setOnClickListener { /* do something */ }

Callback

public interface FindCallback { void onFinish(List<String> results, Exception e); }
private void findCountries(FindCallback doneCallback) { try { /* long task */ doneCallback.onFinish(results, null); } catch (Exception e) { doneCallback.onFinish(null, e); } }
findCountries(new FindCallback(){ void onFinish(List<String> results, Exception e){ /* handle result */ } });

def findCountries(Closure doneCallback) { try { /* long task */ doneCallback(results, null) } catch (e) { doneCallback(null, e) } }
findCountries{ List<String> results, Exception e -> /* handle result */ }

def findCountries(doneCallback: (ArrayBuffer[String], Exception) => Unit): Unit = { try { /* long task */ doneCallback(results, null) } catch { case e: Exception => doneCallback(null, e) } }
findCountries((names: ArrayBuffer[String], e: Exception) => { /* handle result */ })

fun findCountries(doneCallback: (List<String>?, Exception?) -> Unit) { try { /* long task */ doneCallback(results, null) } catch (e: Exception) { doneCallback(null, e) } }
findCountries{ list, e -> /* handle result */ }

Community Support

Java: native support

Groovy: official support

Scala: none

Kotlin: official support

Conclusion

Further comparison data is needed; the article invites additional testing and analysis.