Now that we are familiar with Kotlin and its qualities,
it’s time to choose an IDE to start using this powerful programming language
But, What is an IDE and why do we need something like that?
IDE otherwise known as Integration Development Environment
is a software program that combines common developer tools into a single place and helps developers to write, run, and debug
codes with less effort. IDEs speed up the development process by offering many features like syntax highlighting that changes
keywords and words into different colors and auto code completion which provides suggestions to help developers
to write codes faster with less mistakes.
Depending on what programming language we use there are different IDEs available for us
For example, some of choices for Kotlin developers are:
IntelliJ Idea
Eclipse
Netbeans
VS Code
and Atom
IntelliJ Idea is developed by Jetbrains the owner of Kotlin and because of its capabilities and popularity among the Java and
Kotlin developers, in this tutorial series we use it
but before downloading and installing an IDE we must install a program called JDK to make us capable to write and run
Kotlin based programs. Let me explain it a little more
Kotlin Compiler, converts all Kotlin codes to Java bytecodes, and because by default computers cannot understand these
Java bytecodes they need to install Java Runtime Environment or JRE which composed of a variety of
libraries, tools and a special program called Java Virtual Machine or JVM which Its role is to translate Java bytecodes
into an understandable language for machines
And what about JDK?
JDK which stands for Java Development Kit contains JRE, some tools and libraries that are necessary for developing and testing
Java and Kotlin based applications. So the first step for Java and Kotlin developers is to install JDK on their machines
Let's do it
To install JDK on the mac operating system, open your web browser and search “Download JDK”
Click on this link from Oracle.com. Once it’s opened, scroll down a little and in this section click the macOS tab
Depending on your machine’s processor model you must either download Arm 64 or x64 versions
If your machine’s using an Apple silicon you must download Arm 64, otherwise you must download the x64 version
In case you don’t know your machine’s processor model, at the top-left corner, click on the apple icon
and open “About This Mac”, in the opened window while the “overview” tab is selected, here you can find your machine’s
processor model. As you can see, my macbook has an Apple M1 Pro. So I’ll download the Arm 64 DMG Installer version
The process of installation is similar to other programs. Just open it and complete the steps
Now that we have installed JDK, it’s time to install the IntelliJ idea. So in your web browser; search “Download IntelliJ Idea”
Click this link from Jetbrains.com. When it’s opened, make sure the macOS tab is selected
Under the Community version, by clicking on this arrow, click the compatible version with your machine's processor
Because my laptop’s using an Apple silicon, I’ll download the Apple Silicon version
When downloading is finished, the only thing you need to do is to open the installer file
and drag the IntelliJ Idea into the Application folder
Now by opening the Intellij Idea for the first time, the OS shows this warning, just click the open button
Here IntelliJ Idea asks about data sharing to help Jetbrains to improve their products
I like to help them, so I’ll click the Send Anonymous Statistic button
Of course you can choose the Don’t Send button if you don’t like them to collect your data
Then click the Ok button, to open the welcome window
In this window under the projects tab you can create a new project or open an existing one
By selecting the Customize tab, you can change some of the visual aspects of your IDE
For example you can change its theme to IntelliJ Light, macOS Light, Darcula or High Contrast
I personally prefer the Darcula theme so I left it as a default
But if you want to have more options to customize your IDE, on the top-left corner click on the IntelliJ Idea then open preferences
Here under the editor tab, there are many options to allow you to customize your IDE as you like
For example to increase the font size I select the font tab and here I change it to 18 and
and I change the Line height to 1.6 and then click OK
In the Plugins tab you can download and manage plugins
Plugins are like small applications, by installing them, they add new functionalities to your IDE
And in Learn IntelliJ Idea tab if you like you can click the start learning button to learn more
about shortcuts and some features of the IntelliJ Idea
In the next video you’ll get more familiar with IntelliJ Idea by
creating a new project and inspecting different parts of it
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