Products · Product
Kotlin
Raised as a usability problem by 37 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2011–2026), in 36 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Mixed Java and Kotlin compilation is slow and inconsistentUnreviewed
20112026- Mixed Java/Kotlin compilation is slow and inconsistent2022-03-22
- Found Kotlin incomprehensible; days struggling with simplest async code in Android2021-10-24
- Gradle Kotlin DSL is very slow and unpleasant to work with2021-09-19
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 41 complaints
- Software was so hard to install that user gave up on using it2026-09-30
- Docs don't reveal which exceptions okio can throw, so handling them is hard2026-05-08
- List.isEmpty() appears always true in scratch files, causing hours of confusion2025-10-12
- IDE formatting and standalone formatters disagree, causing merge conflicts and manual configuration2025-08-22
- Extension functions are confusing, especially when callable on null values2025-08-11
- Code completion is painfully slow on large projects, delaying typing2025-08-11
- Half the code is highlighted yellow for having shorthand alternatives, which is distracting2025-07-01
- Smart casting works unreliably, so the programmer can't depend on it2025-05-10
- JSON handling requires clunky, boilerplate-heavy code2025-02-12
- Result type offers no convenience, so every error must be handled manually even when just passing it up2024-12-22
- Lambda context makes calls ambiguous, so code is confusing and slow to understand2024-12-22
- Language is hard to read and grasp, with many ways to do one thing2024-10-08
- Simple data operations become awkward, unreadable or nested into hard-to-follow chains2024-08-30
- Generated iOS code mangles enums and wraps basic types, forcing awkward conversions2023-11-02
- Docs don't explain coroutine internals, so the dispatcher behaviour is confusing2023-10-28
- Build system is unintuitive and a constant headache to work with2023-09-25
- API is so confusing and full of footguns that codebases misuse it2023-06-22
- Compiling is so slow that edit, compile and debug cycles become very painful on large projects2023-03-04
- Safe call silently swallows errors, so code does nothing instead of crashing and debugging gets harder2023-01-23
- Too many overlapping collection types, unclear which to use and how they relate2022-10-25
- Language feels confusing, with unintuitive syntax and a confusing coroutine implementation2022-06-14
- Implicit context object makes it hard to tell which scope a name is looked up in2022-05-16
- Mixed Java/Kotlin compilation is slow and inconsistent2022-03-22
- Documentation is sparse or missing for basic use cases, making tests hard to write2022-02-12
- Found Kotlin incomprehensible; days struggling with simplest async code in Android2021-10-24
- Lambda parameter syntax differs unintuitively from function type syntax, confusing the author weekly2021-09-20
- Gradle Kotlin DSL is very slow and unpleasant to work with2021-09-19
- Wrapping String in a newtype forces explicit toString() calls for most APIs2021-08-19
- Converts negative numbers to unsigned silently, causing invalid data and bugs2021-08-17
- Links don't look clickable and differ in style; back button breaks2021-04-19
- Cancellation and suspend function behaviour are hard to get right and hard to learn2021-04-01
- Class and constructor declarations are confusing to read, merged halfway together2020-02-06
- Java-only docs force a mental translation step when using Java libraries2019-12-17
- Curly-brace lambdas look like statement blocks, so readers must inspect context to tell them apart2019-12-17
- Generated bytecode adds hidden instructions the developer can't see or turn off2018-01-13
- Its similarity to Swift makes the author make mistakes and get frustrated2017-05-17
- Scroll wheel does nothing when mouse is over the top banner; scrollbar hidden behind banner2017-05-03
- Unclear how to use sortBy and sortWith; syntax not obvious from docs2016-06-20
- Can't find how to add Kotlin files to a Java project without IntelliJ2016-06-19
- Reusing existing trait methods requires writing one-by-one implementations or delegation boilerplate2015-09-29
- Can't find a way to download it to try2011-07-20