Kotlin/Wasm with Zalim Bashorov

Join WasmAssembly host Thomas Steiner for a deep dive into the world of Kotlin/Wasm with Zalim Bashorov from JetBrains! This episode of WasmAssembly explores how Kotlin, known for being concise, multiplatform, and fun, became the recommended language for Android, and why JetBrains decided to expand its reach to WebAssembly. They discuss how people are currently using Kotlin on the Web, the power of Kotlin Multiplatform, and the future of Kotlin/Wasm, covering exciting recent and new proposals like Garbage Collection, Exception Handling, and Shared-Everything Threads. Tune in to hear about the tooling, next milestones, and the evolving landscape of Kotlin development.

 

Chapters:
0:00 - Introducing Zalim from JetBrains
2:19 - Kotlin: Concise. Multiplatform. Fun. But what does this mean?
9:05 - How did Kotlin become the recommended programming language for Android?
16:17 - Why did JetBrains decide to support WebAssembly?
25:36 - People use Kotlin on the Web, but how?
31:15 -  What is Kotlin Multiplatform?
37:48 - Understanding canvas-rendered apps
41:17 - Could the HTML-in-Canvas proposal help?
43:59 - New Wasm proposals Zalim is excited about
54:29 - What about Kotlin on the server?

Resources:

• Zalim Basharov on LinkedIn → https://goo.gle/4pis0y2 

• StackOverflow 2025 developer survey results → https://goo.gle/3WZuchN 

• Kotlin Programming Language → https://goo.gle/4ifxZkU 

• Google I/O 2019: Empowering developers to build the best experiences on Android + Play → https://goo.gle/3LLwpen 

• Kotlin Is Everywhere: https://goo.gle/4rlvdPc 

• Kotlin/Native → https://goo.gle/3LNk1KM 

• Kotlin/JavaScript → https://goo.gle/3XxkDH0 

• Kotlin/Wasm → https://goo.gle/4r53NwP 

• Kotlinx.browser → https://goo.gle/4o9WRvJ 

• Kotlin/Wasm browser template → https://goo.gle/49tzl9c 

• Get started with Kotlin/Wasm and Compose Multiplatform → https://goo.gle/3X8cmsW 

• Get started with Kotlin Multiplatform → https://goo.gle/48njI20 

• HTML-in-Canvas proposal → https://goo.gle/48sy8wX  

• Garbage collection proposal → https://goo.gle/4i4CgHw 

• Exception handling proposal → https://goo.gle/483coav 

• Shared-everything threads proposal → https://goo.gle/4474V9e 

• Stack switching proposal → https://goo.gle/49XiMCH 

• All ways to reach Zalim → https://goo.gle/3LG78lT