Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

I was excited to hear that BNR was working on a Kotlin specific book. Their content is usually well regarded, so I expected this book to be organized and well written, and it seems to be. I have been writing Java (Android) software for many years, so have some experience. It seems like this book would be OK for the complete beginner, as it does a good job of walking the reader through the necessary steps to complete a learning unit. I wanted a book that started with the basics, because I wanted to make sure I was learning these fundamental concepts well from the beginning. This book walks the reader through building a project. Over time, the project becomes more complicated, as the topics being taught become more complex. I plan to read this book from start to finish, and build the project to it's completion. I think you could also read particular chapters if you didn't want to do the entire project. So far, I have found the level of the material to be well designed for me. I am finding it quite easy to learn Kotlin. I am not sure if it is because of my previous Java experience, the pragmatic nature of Kotlin, or that this book is well written. I suspect it is a combination of each of those.

When it comes to learning, I'm a book guy. I like that unlike many blogs, the content is edited, double checked, and took longer than an hour to write. This book is well written, and does a great job of explaining not just "how", but also "why." It's not overly dry, and the exercises and example code all works together. One small nit: some of the exercises aren't super clear, but they aren't crucial to learning.

If you want to learn Korlin from scratch, this is the right book for you. Good examples, as well as clear explanations for a better understanding. I like how in the examples they show you how the code is changing (if they added or deleted lines of code).

The only thing I didn't like is the reference application being built. It's some kind of text-based game. But otherwise, this is the best Kotlin book out there currently on the market.

This is not the lightweight "a few topics in Kotlin" book. This is the manual. It is clear, relatively easy to read, given the scope, and useful as a reference, once you get done reading it. Best Kotlin book so far.

This book was incredible. Easy to follow examples and clear explainations. If you are an Android developer this is a MUST.

I've been working through two of the books from BNR, on recommendation of a friend, for probably a month now. And as an educator on a different subject who is now in a learning setting, this book is beyond frustrating. There is a lot of assumed knowledge of previous programming experience, such as program structure and the like. The challenges are a great idea, but they're poorly executed. You're often not given the information that you need to be able to solve the challenges without beating your head about the wall. So you might spend literal days on it trying to find solutions without cheating, in the name of learning. Because you'd expect that they would have included all the information you needed. Then once you solve the challenge, you realize they didn't. The more frustrating part of it is how often you get through the challenge after hours of debugging and problem solving, to find the information you needed in the next chapter. I'll keep plugging along because I'm trying to program for personal entrepreneurial efforts, but this all feels a lot like trying to teach someone how to snowboard by spending the whole day just yelling "TURN DAMMIT! JUST MOVE LIKE THIS! DO IT THIS WAY!" If I wanted to bumble around in a dark maze while blindfolded looking for solutions, I'd go to a corn maze bind folded. Or you can buy a Big Nerd Ranch Programming book.

Es un libro guía excelente. La manera con la que te van guiando y explicando, los retos al final de cada capítulo, todo ello, te ayuda a consolidar lo que se está aprendiendo. Lo recomiendo al 100%

Great book, only reason it is 4 star instead of 5 is that it is due a revised edition

This book is great if you are a complete beginner in programming. If you are more experienced with JVM you may want to find something more advanced.

Una vista rapida y tiene la info que esperaba para aprender Kotlin, pero no venía cerrado el libro y un poco doblado de las orillas 😢... por eso el 4tro

Nice book for kotlin 1.2

I wanted a book to migrate from Java, quickly and efficiently. This is not it. Clearly, the authors miss their college programs. Booze jokes sprinkled through sections. Non traditional lay out of topics so you can cover developing a text based adventure game. When I was 20 - if I hadn't known how to program, I might have enjoyed this book. But this is not a book for grown ups migrating languages, trying to quickly get a handle of the new language I'm just going to use the kotlin docs - I incorrectly thought a book would be faster.