Kotlin assimilating the Android ecosystem: An appraisal of diffusion and impact on maintainability

Kotlin was introduced in 2011 as an alternative to the Java programming language, promising to address many of its predecessor’s limitations and positioning itself as a better option for application maintainability. In 2017, Kotlin became a first-class language for Android application development, c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of systems and software Vol. 222; p. 112346
Main Authors: Coppola, Riccardo, Fulcini, Tommaso, Ardito, Luca, Torchiano, Marco
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Inc 01.04.2025
Subjects:
ISSN:0164-1212
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract Kotlin was introduced in 2011 as an alternative to the Java programming language, promising to address many of its predecessor’s limitations and positioning itself as a better option for application maintainability. In 2017, Kotlin became a first-class language for Android application development, complete with extensive tool support. This paper aims to empirically assess the diffusion of Kotlin in developing Android applications and to investigate the impact of Kotlin adoption on application maintainability. We mined 2708 open-source Android applications from F-Droid, focusing on the extent of Kotlin code presence, their popularity, and maintainability. This analysis adopted a set of six code metrics proxies. The proportion of applications developed with Kotlin, either in conjunction with Java or exclusively, has continuously increased over the past five years. Currently, Kotlin is used in approximately 40% of the projects. The adoption of Kotlin in application development appears to be linked to greater popularity among end-users and developers when compared to the applications written in Java. Notably, the exclusive use of Kotlin in projects significantly enhances all the considered code maintainability metrics. We conclude that Kotlin is rapidly gaining ground in the Android ecosystem. This trend is likely due to Kotlin’s fulfilment of its promise as a superior alternative to Java, particularly in terms of maintainability.
AbstractList Kotlin was introduced in 2011 as an alternative to the Java programming language, promising to address many of its predecessor’s limitations and positioning itself as a better option for application maintainability. In 2017, Kotlin became a first-class language for Android application development, complete with extensive tool support. This paper aims to empirically assess the diffusion of Kotlin in developing Android applications and to investigate the impact of Kotlin adoption on application maintainability. We mined 2708 open-source Android applications from F-Droid, focusing on the extent of Kotlin code presence, their popularity, and maintainability. This analysis adopted a set of six code metrics proxies. The proportion of applications developed with Kotlin, either in conjunction with Java or exclusively, has continuously increased over the past five years. Currently, Kotlin is used in approximately 40% of the projects. The adoption of Kotlin in application development appears to be linked to greater popularity among end-users and developers when compared to the applications written in Java. Notably, the exclusive use of Kotlin in projects significantly enhances all the considered code maintainability metrics. We conclude that Kotlin is rapidly gaining ground in the Android ecosystem. This trend is likely due to Kotlin’s fulfilment of its promise as a superior alternative to Java, particularly in terms of maintainability.
ArticleNumber 112346
Author Ardito, Luca
Fulcini, Tommaso
Torchiano, Marco
Coppola, Riccardo
Author_xml – sequence: 1
  givenname: Riccardo
  orcidid: 0000-0003-4601-7425
  surname: Coppola
  fullname: Coppola, Riccardo
  email: riccardo.coppola@polito.it
– sequence: 2
  givenname: Tommaso
  surname: Fulcini
  fullname: Fulcini, Tommaso
  email: tommaso.fulcini@polito.it
– sequence: 3
  givenname: Luca
  orcidid: 0000-0002-0501-7886
  surname: Ardito
  fullname: Ardito, Luca
  email: luca.ardito@polito.it
– sequence: 4
  givenname: Marco
  orcidid: 0000-0001-5328-368X
  surname: Torchiano
  fullname: Torchiano, Marco
  email: marco.torchiano@polito.it
BookMark eNp9kMtOwzAQRb0oEm3hA9j5BxJsp0kaWFUVL1GJDayt8QsmSuLINkj9e1yVNYvRaI7mjkZnRRaTnywhN5yVnPHmti_7GEvBRF1yLqpNsyDLzDcFF1xcklWMPWOszQtLol59GnCiECOOOEDC6ZOmL0t3kwkeDbXax2NMdrzLiMI8B8AIA_WOGnTuO6LPeDIUxxl0onkaAaeUCxQOmI5X5MLBEO31X1-Tj8eH9_1zcXh7etnvDoUWnUgF1FwJtdVd1bVGdUbVdssY31qhGm0bAxsF0NadqjqojGscs23TOgegta5qU60JP9_VwccYrJNzwBHCUXImT2JkL7MYeRIjz2Jy5v6csfmxH7RBRo120tZgsDpJ4_Gf9C9q8XJh
Cites_doi 10.7717/peerj-cs.406
10.1145/3121264.3121266
10.1016/0950-5849(92)90072-W
10.1016/j.infsof.2020.106274
10.1109/32.295895
10.1007/s10664-019-09687-9
10.1109/TSE.2021.3120367
10.1145/3524842.3527941
10.1145/3267183.3267186
10.1109/TSE.1976.233837
10.1145/2597073.2597074
10.1145/3340496.3342759
10.1109/MS.2016.147
10.1016/j.softx.2020.100635
10.1145/3168829
10.1016/S0164-1212(98)10052-3
10.1145/3393822.3432334
10.26483/ijarcs.v9i3.5978
10.1016/j.infsof.2020.106374
10.1007/s10664-019-09727-4
10.1109/CJECE.2003.1532511
ContentType Journal Article
Copyright 2025 The Authors
Copyright_xml – notice: 2025 The Authors
DBID 6I.
AAFTH
AAYXX
CITATION
DOI 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346
DatabaseName ScienceDirect Open Access Titles
Elsevier:ScienceDirect:Open Access
CrossRef
DatabaseTitle CrossRef
DatabaseTitleList
DeliveryMethod fulltext_linktorsrc
Discipline Computer Science
ExternalDocumentID 10_1016_j_jss_2025_112346
S0164121225000147
GroupedDBID --K
--M
-~X
.DC
.~1
0R~
1B1
1~.
1~5
29L
4.4
457
4G.
5GY
5VS
6I.
7-5
71M
8P~
9JN
9M8
AABNK
AACTN
AAEDT
AAEDW
AAFTH
AAIKJ
AAKOC
AALRI
AAOAW
AAQFI
AAQXK
AATTM
AAXKI
AAXUO
AAYFN
AAYOK
ABBOA
ABDPE
ABEFU
ABFNM
ABFRF
ABFSI
ABJNI
ABMAC
ABWVN
ABXDB
ACDAQ
ACGFO
ACGFS
ACGOD
ACNNM
ACRLP
ACRPL
ACZNC
ADBBV
ADEZE
ADHUB
ADJOM
ADMUD
ADNMO
AEBSH
AEFWE
AEIPS
AEKER
AENEX
AFJKZ
AFTJW
AFXIZ
AGCQF
AGHFR
AGQPQ
AGUBO
AGYEJ
AHHHB
AHZHX
AI.
AIALX
AIEXJ
AIKHN
AITUG
AKRWK
ALMA_UNASSIGNED_HOLDINGS
AMRAJ
ANKPU
AOUOD
APXCP
ASPBG
AVWKF
AXJTR
AZFZN
BKOJK
BKOMP
BLXMC
BNPGV
CS3
DU5
E.L
EBS
EFJIC
EJD
EO8
EO9
EP2
EP3
FDB
FEDTE
FGOYB
FIRID
FNPLU
FYGXN
G-Q
GBLVA
GBOLZ
HLZ
HVGLF
HZ~
IHE
J1W
KOM
LG9
M41
MO0
MS~
N9A
O-L
O9-
OAUVE
OZT
P-8
P-9
P2P
PC.
PQQKQ
Q38
R2-
RIG
RNS
ROL
RPZ
RXW
SBC
SDF
SDG
SDP
SES
SEW
SPC
SPCBC
SSH
SSV
SSZ
T5K
TAE
TN5
TWZ
UHS
UNMZH
VH1
WUQ
XPP
ZMT
ZY4
~G-
9DU
AAYWO
AAYXX
ACLOT
ACVFH
ADCNI
AEUPX
AFPUW
AIGII
AIIUN
AKBMS
AKYEP
CITATION
EFKBS
EFLBG
~HD
ID FETCH-LOGICAL-c292t-a51b2b8c9397db9db5e80018e2b6ce6da4baa759b39a3df6f0e767ffaaccc35d3
ISICitedReferencesCount 0
ISICitedReferencesURI http://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=Summon&SrcAuth=ProQuest&DestLinkType=CitingArticles&DestApp=WOS_CPL&KeyUT=001408910300001&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com%2F%23%21%2Fsearch%3Fho%3Df%26include.ft.matches%3Dt%26l%3Dnull%26q%3D
ISSN 0164-1212
IngestDate Sat Nov 29 08:01:47 EST 2025
Sat May 03 15:57:54 EDT 2025
IsDoiOpenAccess true
IsOpenAccess true
IsPeerReviewed true
IsScholarly true
Keywords Software maintainability
Android development
Kotlin
Language English
License This is an open access article under the CC BY license.
LinkModel OpenURL
MergedId FETCHMERGED-LOGICAL-c292t-a51b2b8c9397db9db5e80018e2b6ce6da4baa759b39a3df6f0e767ffaaccc35d3
ORCID 0000-0003-4601-7425
0000-0002-0501-7886
0000-0001-5328-368X
OpenAccessLink https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346
ParticipantIDs crossref_primary_10_1016_j_jss_2025_112346
elsevier_sciencedirect_doi_10_1016_j_jss_2025_112346
PublicationCentury 2000
PublicationDate April 2025
2025-04-00
PublicationDateYYYYMMDD 2025-04-01
PublicationDate_xml – month: 04
  year: 2025
  text: April 2025
PublicationDecade 2020
PublicationTitle The Journal of systems and software
PublicationYear 2025
Publisher Elsevier Inc
Publisher_xml – name: Elsevier Inc
References Hariprasad, Vidhyagaran, Seenu, Thirumalai (b22) 2017
Ardito, Barbato, Castelluccio, Coppola, Denizet, Ledru, Valsesia (b6) 2020; 12
Govil (b20) 2020
Ait, A., Izquierdo, J.L.C., Cabot, J., 2022. An empirical study on the survival rate of GitHub projects. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories. pp. 365–375.
Andrä, L.-M., Taufner, B., Schefer-Wenzl, S., Miladinovic, I., 2020. Maintainability Metrics for Android Applications in Kotlin: An Evaluation of Tools. In: Proceedings of the 2020 European Symposium on Software Engineering. pp. 1–5.
Mohsen, Oosterhaven, Turkmen (b31) 2021
Akhin, Belyaev (b2) 2021
Bose, Mukherjee, Kundu, Banerjee (b10) 2018; 9
Martinez, Mateus (b29) 2021; 48
Schwermer (b34) 2018
Vasa, R., Schneider, J.-G., 2003. Evolution of cyclomatic complexity in object oriented software. In: Proceedings of 7th ECOOP Workshop on Quantitative Approaches in Object-Oriented Software Engineering. QAOOSE’03, Darmstadt, Germany, pp. 1–5.
Coppola, R., Ardito, L., Torchiano, M., 2019. Characterizing the transition to kotlin of android apps: A study on f-droid, play store, and github. In: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSOFT International Workshop on App Market Analytics. pp. 8–14.
Coelho, Valente, Milen, Silva (b12) 2020; 122
Góis Mateus, Martinez (b19) 2019; 24
Shao, Wang (b35) 2003; 28
Anon. (b4) 2022
Ardito, Coppola, Barbato, Verga (b8) 2020; 2020
Oliveira, Teixeira, Ebert (b32) 2020
McCabe (b30) 1976; SE-2
Shepperd (b36) 1992; 34
Dorofeev, Wenger (b14) 2019
Wohlin, Runeson, Höst, Ohlsson, Regnell, Wesslén (b38) 2012
Kalliamvakou, E., Gousios, G., Blincoe, K., Singer, L., German, D.M., Damian, D., 2014. The promises and perils of mining github. In: Proceedings of the 11th Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories. pp. 92–101.
Hecht, Bergel (b23) 2021
Peters, Scoccia, Malavolta (b33) 2021
Zeng, Chen, Shang, Chen (b39) 2019; 24
Chidamber, Kemerer (b11) 1994; 20
Grano, G., Di Sorbo, A., Mercaldo, F., Visaggio, C.A., Canfora, G., Panichella, S., 2017. Android apps and user feedback: A dataset for software evolution and quality improvement. In: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSOFT International Workshop on App Market Analytics. pp. 8–11.
Ardito, Coppola, Malnati, Torchiano (b9) 2020; 127
Hellbrück (b24) 2019
Flauzino, M., Veríssimo, J., Terra, R., Cirilo, E., Durelli, V.H.S., Durelli, R.S., 2018. Are you still smelling it? A comparative study between Java and Kotlin language. In: Proceedings of the VII Brazilian Symposium on Software Components, Architectures, and Reuse. pp. 23–32.
Martinez, Mateus (b28) 2020
Ebert, Cain, Antoniol, Counsell, Laplante (b15) 2016; 33
Li (b27) 1998; 44
Ardito, Barbato, Coppola, Valsesia (b7) 2021; 7
IEEE (b25) 1990
Fu, X., Lee, D., Jung, C., 2018. nAdroid: Statically detecting ordering violations in Android applications. In: Proceedings of the 2018 International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization. pp. 62–74.
Frakes (b17) 1996
Anon. (b5) 2023
Coelho (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b12) 2020; 122
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b26
Oliveira (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b32) 2020
Anon. (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b4) 2022
Hecht (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b23) 2021
Martinez (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b28) 2020
Schwermer (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b34) 2018
Ardito (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b8) 2020; 2020
Chidamber (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b11) 1994; 20
Ardito (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b7) 2021; 7
IEEE (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b25) 1990
Wohlin (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b38) 2012
Shepperd (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b36) 1992; 34
Hariprasad (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b22) 2017
Hellbrück (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b24) 2019
Zeng (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b39) 2019; 24
Shao (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b35) 2003; 28
McCabe (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b30) 1976; SE-2
Peters (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b33) 2021
Govil (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b20) 2020
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b21
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b13
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b37
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b3
Bose (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b10) 2018; 9
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b1
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b16
Ardito (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b6) 2020; 12
10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b18
Mohsen (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b31) 2021
Li (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b27) 1998; 44
Anon. (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b5) 2023
Martinez (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b29) 2021; 48
Akhin (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b2) 2021
Góis Mateus (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b19) 2019; 24
Ardito (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b9) 2020; 127
Frakes (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b17) 1996
Dorofeev (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b14) 2019
Ebert (10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b15) 2016; 33
References_xml – volume: 12
  year: 2020
  ident: b6
  article-title: Rust-code-analysis: A rust library to analyze and extract maintainability information from source codes
  publication-title: SoftwareX
– volume: 2020
  start-page: 1
  year: 2020
  end-page: 26
  ident: b8
  article-title: A tool-based perspective on software code maintainability metrics: A systematic literature review
  publication-title: Sci. Program.
– year: 1996
  ident: b17
  article-title: First contact
– year: 2021
  ident: b2
  article-title: Kotlin language specification
  publication-title: Kotlin Lang. Specif.
– reference: Coppola, R., Ardito, L., Torchiano, M., 2019. Characterizing the transition to kotlin of android apps: A study on f-droid, play store, and github. In: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSOFT International Workshop on App Market Analytics. pp. 8–14.
– volume: SE-2
  start-page: 308
  year: 1976
  end-page: 320
  ident: b30
  article-title: A complexity measure
  publication-title: IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.
– start-page: 1077
  year: 2019
  end-page: 1084
  ident: b14
  article-title: Evaluating skill-based control architecture for flexible automation systems
  publication-title: 2019 24th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation
– reference: Flauzino, M., Veríssimo, J., Terra, R., Cirilo, E., Durelli, V.H.S., Durelli, R.S., 2018. Are you still smelling it? A comparative study between Java and Kotlin language. In: Proceedings of the VII Brazilian Symposium on Software Components, Architectures, and Reuse. pp. 23–32.
– start-page: 1109
  year: 2017
  end-page: 1113
  ident: b22
  article-title: Software complexity analysis using halstead metrics
  publication-title: 2017 International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics
– volume: 9
  start-page: 41
  year: 2018
  end-page: 45
  ident: b10
  article-title: A comparative study: Java vs kotlin programming in android application development
  publication-title: Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Sci.
– year: 2022
  ident: b4
  article-title: From zero to 10 million lines of Kotlin
– volume: 28
  start-page: 69
  year: 2003
  end-page: 74
  ident: b35
  article-title: A new measure of software complexity based on cognitive weights
  publication-title: Can. J. Electr. Comput. Eng.
– volume: 48
  start-page: 4521
  year: 2021
  end-page: 4534
  ident: b29
  article-title: Why did developers migrate android applications from java to kotlin?
  publication-title: IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.
– reference: Andrä, L.-M., Taufner, B., Schefer-Wenzl, S., Miladinovic, I., 2020. Maintainability Metrics for Android Applications in Kotlin: An Evaluation of Tools. In: Proceedings of the 2020 European Symposium on Software Engineering. pp. 1–5.
– volume: 127
  year: 2020
  ident: b9
  article-title: Effectiveness of Kotlin vs. Java in android app development tasks
  publication-title: Inf. Softw. Technol.
– volume: 24
  start-page: 3394
  year: 2019
  end-page: 3434
  ident: b39
  article-title: Studying the characteristics of logging practices in mobile apps: A case study on f-droid
  publication-title: Empir. Softw. Eng.
– start-page: 94
  year: 2021
  end-page: 98
  ident: b23
  article-title: Quantifying the adoption of kotlin on Android stores: Insight from the bytecode
  publication-title: 2021 IEEE/ACM 8th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems, MobileSoft
– year: 2020
  ident: b28
  article-title: How and why did developers migrate Android applications from Java to kotlin? A study based on code analysis and interviews with developers
– start-page: 36
  year: 2021
  end-page: 46
  ident: b33
  article-title: How does migrating to kotlin impact the run-time efficiency of android apps?
  publication-title: 2021 IEEE 21st International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation
– reference: Vasa, R., Schneider, J.-G., 2003. Evolution of cyclomatic complexity in object oriented software. In: Proceedings of 7th ECOOP Workshop on Quantitative Approaches in Object-Oriented Software Engineering. QAOOSE’03, Darmstadt, Germany, pp. 1–5.
– start-page: 84
  year: 2021
  end-page: 93
  ident: b31
  article-title: KotlinDetector: Towards understanding the implications of using kotlin in Android applications
  publication-title: 2021 IEEE/ACM 8th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems, MobileSoft
– volume: 7
  year: 2021
  ident: b7
  article-title: Evaluation of rust code verbosity, understandability and complexity
  publication-title: PeerJ Comput. Sci.
– year: 2019
  ident: b24
  article-title: A Data Mining Approach to Compare Java with Kotlin
– reference: Ait, A., Izquierdo, J.L.C., Cabot, J., 2022. An empirical study on the survival rate of GitHub projects. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories. pp. 365–375.
– start-page: 206
  year: 2020
  end-page: 216
  ident: b32
  article-title: On the adoption of kotlin on android development: A triangulation study
  publication-title: 2020 IEEE 27th International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering
– year: 2018
  ident: b34
  article-title: Performance evaluation of kotlin and java on android runtime
– year: 1990
  ident: b25
  article-title: IEEE standard glossary of software engineering terminology
– volume: 33
  start-page: 27
  year: 2016
  end-page: 29
  ident: b15
  article-title: Cyclomatic complexity
  publication-title: IEEE Softw.
– reference: Fu, X., Lee, D., Jung, C., 2018. nAdroid: Statically detecting ordering violations in Android applications. In: Proceedings of the 2018 International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization. pp. 62–74.
– reference: Grano, G., Di Sorbo, A., Mercaldo, F., Visaggio, C.A., Canfora, G., Panichella, S., 2017. Android apps and user feedback: A dataset for software evolution and quality improvement. In: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSOFT International Workshop on App Market Analytics. pp. 8–11.
– volume: 24
  start-page: 3356
  year: 2019
  end-page: 3393
  ident: b19
  article-title: An empirical study on quality of Android applications written in kotlin language
  publication-title: Empir. Softw. Eng.
– volume: 122
  year: 2020
  ident: b12
  article-title: Is this GitHub project maintained? Measuring the level of maintenance activity of open-source projects
  publication-title: Inf. Softw. Technol.
– start-page: 939
  year: 2020
  end-page: 943
  ident: b20
  article-title: Applying halstead software science on different programming languages for analyzing software complexity
  publication-title: 2020 4th International Conference on Trends in Electronics and Informatics
– reference: Kalliamvakou, E., Gousios, G., Blincoe, K., Singer, L., German, D.M., Damian, D., 2014. The promises and perils of mining github. In: Proceedings of the 11th Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories. pp. 92–101.
– volume: 34
  start-page: 674
  year: 1992
  end-page: 680
  ident: b36
  article-title: Products, processes and metrics
  publication-title: Inf. Softw. Technol.
– volume: 20
  start-page: 476
  year: 1994
  end-page: 493
  ident: b11
  article-title: A metrics suite for object oriented design
  publication-title: IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.
– year: 2023
  ident: b5
  article-title: Kotlin for Android
– year: 2012
  ident: b38
  article-title: Experimentation in Software Engineering
– volume: 44
  start-page: 155
  year: 1998
  end-page: 162
  ident: b27
  article-title: Another metric suite for object-oriented programming
  publication-title: J. Syst. Softw.
– start-page: 1077
  year: 2019
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b14
  article-title: Evaluating skill-based control architecture for flexible automation systems
– year: 2018
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b34
– volume: 7
  year: 2021
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b7
  article-title: Evaluation of rust code verbosity, understandability and complexity
  publication-title: PeerJ Comput. Sci.
  doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.406
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b21
  doi: 10.1145/3121264.3121266
– volume: 34
  start-page: 674
  issue: 10
  year: 1992
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b36
  article-title: Products, processes and metrics
  publication-title: Inf. Softw. Technol.
  doi: 10.1016/0950-5849(92)90072-W
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b37
– start-page: 84
  year: 2021
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b31
  article-title: KotlinDetector: Towards understanding the implications of using kotlin in Android applications
– volume: 122
  year: 2020
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b12
  article-title: Is this GitHub project maintained? Measuring the level of maintenance activity of open-source projects
  publication-title: Inf. Softw. Technol.
  doi: 10.1016/j.infsof.2020.106274
– volume: 20
  start-page: 476
  issue: 6
  year: 1994
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b11
  article-title: A metrics suite for object oriented design
  publication-title: IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.
  doi: 10.1109/32.295895
– start-page: 36
  year: 2021
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b33
  article-title: How does migrating to kotlin impact the run-time efficiency of android apps?
– start-page: 206
  year: 2020
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b32
  article-title: On the adoption of kotlin on android development: A triangulation study
– volume: 24
  start-page: 3394
  year: 2019
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b39
  article-title: Studying the characteristics of logging practices in mobile apps: A case study on f-droid
  publication-title: Empir. Softw. Eng.
  doi: 10.1007/s10664-019-09687-9
– year: 2023
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b5
– year: 2012
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b38
– volume: 2020
  start-page: 1
  year: 2020
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b8
  article-title: A tool-based perspective on software code maintainability metrics: A systematic literature review
  publication-title: Sci. Program.
– year: 1996
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b17
– volume: 48
  start-page: 4521
  issue: 11
  year: 2021
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b29
  article-title: Why did developers migrate android applications from java to kotlin?
  publication-title: IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.
  doi: 10.1109/TSE.2021.3120367
– year: 2019
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b24
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b1
  doi: 10.1145/3524842.3527941
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b16
  doi: 10.1145/3267183.3267186
– volume: SE-2
  start-page: 308
  issue: 4
  year: 1976
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b30
  article-title: A complexity measure
  publication-title: IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.
  doi: 10.1109/TSE.1976.233837
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b26
  doi: 10.1145/2597073.2597074
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b13
  doi: 10.1145/3340496.3342759
– volume: 33
  start-page: 27
  issue: 6
  year: 2016
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b15
  article-title: Cyclomatic complexity
  publication-title: IEEE Softw.
  doi: 10.1109/MS.2016.147
– start-page: 1109
  year: 2017
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b22
  article-title: Software complexity analysis using halstead metrics
– year: 2020
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b28
– volume: 12
  year: 2020
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b6
  article-title: Rust-code-analysis: A rust library to analyze and extract maintainability information from source codes
  publication-title: SoftwareX
  doi: 10.1016/j.softx.2020.100635
– year: 1990
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b25
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b18
  doi: 10.1145/3168829
– year: 2022
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b4
– volume: 44
  start-page: 155
  issue: 2
  year: 1998
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b27
  article-title: Another metric suite for object-oriented programming
  publication-title: J. Syst. Softw.
  doi: 10.1016/S0164-1212(98)10052-3
– ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b3
  doi: 10.1145/3393822.3432334
– volume: 9
  start-page: 41
  issue: 3
  year: 2018
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b10
  article-title: A comparative study: Java vs kotlin programming in android application development
  publication-title: Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Sci.
  doi: 10.26483/ijarcs.v9i3.5978
– volume: 127
  year: 2020
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b9
  article-title: Effectiveness of Kotlin vs. Java in android app development tasks
  publication-title: Inf. Softw. Technol.
  doi: 10.1016/j.infsof.2020.106374
– volume: 24
  start-page: 3356
  year: 2019
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b19
  article-title: An empirical study on quality of Android applications written in kotlin language
  publication-title: Empir. Softw. Eng.
  doi: 10.1007/s10664-019-09727-4
– start-page: 939
  year: 2020
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b20
  article-title: Applying halstead software science on different programming languages for analyzing software complexity
– volume: 28
  start-page: 69
  issue: 2
  year: 2003
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b35
  article-title: A new measure of software complexity based on cognitive weights
  publication-title: Can. J. Electr. Comput. Eng.
  doi: 10.1109/CJECE.2003.1532511
– year: 2021
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b2
  article-title: Kotlin language specification
  publication-title: Kotlin Lang. Specif.
– start-page: 94
  year: 2021
  ident: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346_b23
  article-title: Quantifying the adoption of kotlin on Android stores: Insight from the bytecode
SSID ssj0007202
Score 2.4286714
Snippet Kotlin was introduced in 2011 as an alternative to the Java programming language, promising to address many of its predecessor’s limitations and positioning...
SourceID crossref
elsevier
SourceType Index Database
Publisher
StartPage 112346
SubjectTerms Android development
Kotlin
Software maintainability
Title Kotlin assimilating the Android ecosystem: An appraisal of diffusion and impact on maintainability
URI https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2025.112346
Volume 222
WOSCitedRecordID wos001408910300001&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com%2F%23%21%2Fsearch%3Fho%3Df%26include.ft.matches%3Dt%26l%3Dnull%26q%3D
hasFullText 1
inHoldings 1
isFullTextHit
isPrint
journalDatabaseRights – providerCode: PRVESC
  databaseName: Elsevier SD Freedom Collection Journals 2021
  issn: 0164-1212
  databaseCode: AIEXJ
  dateStart: 19950101
  customDbUrl:
  isFulltext: true
  dateEnd: 99991231
  titleUrlDefault: https://www.sciencedirect.com
  omitProxy: false
  ssIdentifier: ssj0007202
  providerName: Elsevier
link http://cvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwtV1Li9swEBZptode-i7dvtChpwaXWLb86G1ZtvTFUmgKuRlJlsFhY4V1srs_vzN6OI-20BZ6MY7Aipn5LI2k75sh5DXPRDwthI5w_onSrE4ikcQsEhj9ylhKJlNbbCI_Py_m8_LraHQdtDBXF3nXFTc35eq_uhrawNkonf0Ldw-dQgPcg9PhCm6H6x85_rNZI7kcguJ22SLTzeuhkLpo2noC602XvtnvCWJWcdH2LijFeimbPlCUg4SymyxF2zmhFXJp946Ct-Iy24Pr22V-7mGMvxZbeu2pWa1gKe0F_QrAaQb8bC5Ua8tLTWZmuRS92UKxbm2tp8mXzZZXNDN4AiJs4XAUHCmzu3_B-A7txW6qBWHNHu8TE39FMYv3BmrmFMw_Dfpu_2HxdtFj_nXGURaVpAcJtu2U_Q37xW4Zt4vD_BY5YjkvizE5Ovl4Nv80TOI5s3TV4T3CgbilBh780a9Dmp0wZXaf3PWOoCcOFw_ISHcPyb1Qu4P6ofwRkQ4mdBcmFGBCPUzoAJN30EQHkFDT0AEkFJxMHUgo_DoAyWPy_f3Z7PRD5OttRIqVbB0JHsOnWagSYtRalrXkusCijZrJTOmsFqkUAqwlk1IkdZM1U51nedMIoZRKeJ08IePOdPopodhQcAi2Ib5OdRaLadYUmNy2zGEJnUyPyZtgsmrl0qpUgW-4qMC-Fdq3cvY9JmkwauXjQhfvVYCA3z_27N8ee07uOJgiyfMFGa8vN_olua2u1m1_-crj5AeB_4rK
linkProvider Elsevier
openUrl ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Kotlin+assimilating+the+Android+ecosystem%3A+An+appraisal+of+diffusion+and+impact+on+maintainability&rft.jtitle=The+Journal+of+systems+and+software&rft.au=Coppola%2C+Riccardo&rft.au=Fulcini%2C+Tommaso&rft.au=Ardito%2C+Luca&rft.au=Torchiano%2C+Marco&rft.date=2025-04-01&rft.pub=Elsevier+Inc&rft.issn=0164-1212&rft.volume=222&rft_id=info:doi/10.1016%2Fj.jss.2025.112346&rft.externalDocID=S0164121225000147
thumbnail_l http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/lc.gif&issn=0164-1212&client=summon
thumbnail_m http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/mc.gif&issn=0164-1212&client=summon
thumbnail_s http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/sc.gif&issn=0164-1212&client=summon