KotlinConf 2018 - Porting D3.js to Kotlin Multiplatform by Gaetan Zoritchak and Pierre Mariac

Recording brought to you by American Express https://americanexpress.io/kotlin-jobs
D3.js is a very successful javascript library for data visualization, this library is exhaustive and widely used, so why port it ? Well, we had convictions which lead us to start this project:

A static language can boost productivity and ease maintenance,
Datavisualization deals with a lot of small DSLs, a domain where Kotlin excels,
Kotlin is a way to provide multiplatform isomorphic visualization on Android, JavaFx and the browser,
We need a toolable language to develop a future editor.

In this session, we also present the issues we faced porting thousands of highly optimized dynamic javascript lines of code to Kotlin multiplatform. You will see the resulting code and the choices we made to achieve 95% of common code.

Finally we demonstrate how DSL + static types will help developers to quick-start a data-visualization project.

About the Presenters:
Gaetan Zoritchak is an enthusiastic father, developer, entrepreneur, paraglider pilot, … Having used lots of languages during its 20 years of IT experience, he believed very early in the promises of kotlin. He started in 2012 to code with it and in 2013 to promote it as a speaker.

Pierre Mariac has worked for many companies as a data‑visualization specialist, able to understand the concerns from the business to the managers to provide the best tools for data analysis.