The Kotlin DSL for Gradle

Gradle introduced Kotlin DSL in 2016 and formally released it in 2019. Recently the Kotlin DSL has become the default language for all new Gradle builds. It's probably time to learn about it: what are its advantages and disadvantages, how you can move from the Groovy DSL to the Kotlin DSL, and whether it's worth your time and effort to learn and use.

The Kotlin DSL brings strong typing, null safety, and, most importantly, powerful IDE support. The goal is to improve the user experience with Gradle build files through code assist and improved readability. This presentation will demonstrate the new build style, both for Java projects and for Kotlin projects.

The talk will include recommendations on how to move from the Groovy DSL to Kotlin, how to navigate and use the Kotlin DSL samples in the documentation, how to define tasks, use plugins, and more.

About Kenneth Kousen

Ken Kousen is a Java Champion, several time JavaOne Rock Star, and a Grails Rock Star. He is the author of the Pragmatic Library books “Mockito Made Clear” and “Help Your Boss Help You,” the O'Reilly books “Kotlin Cookbook”, “Modern Java Recipes”, and “Gradle Recipes for Android”, and the Manning book “Making Java Groovy”. He also has recorded over a dozen video courses for the O'Reilly Learning Platform, covering topics related to Android, Spring, Java, Groovy, Grails, and Gradle.

His academic background include BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from M.I.T., an MA and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an MS in Computer Science from R.P.I. He is currently President of Kousen IT, Inc., based in Connecticut.

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