The programming language after Kotlin – with the creator of Kotlin

2026-02-04 · Source: The Pragmatic Engineer · Field: Technology & Digital — Software Development & Engineering, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Emerging Technologies & Innovation · Depth: Advanced, medium

Summary

Andrey Breslav, creator of Kotlin and founder of CodeSpeak, discusses the design and evolution of programming languages, particularly Kotlin's journey and the motivations behind his new language. Kotlin emerged in response to Java's stagnation by 2010, with its initial version being an IDE plugin before a compiler. Key design choices included C#-inspired generics and Gosu-inspired smart casts, though omitting the ternary operator is noted as a regret. Kotlin's accidental but crucial adoption by Android developers, due to stricter JVM requirements, helped validate its bytecode correctness. Breslav is now developing CodeSpeak, a plain-English programming language aiming to reduce boilerplate by 10x, emphasizing human control in an AI-driven development landscape. He also predicts a comeback for IDEs by 2026, designed for agent-first workflows, and stresses the growing importance of skill in using AI coding tools.

Key takeaway

For software engineers navigating the evolving development landscape, you should actively invest in mastering AI coding tools and exploring new language paradigms like CodeSpeak. Your ability to effectively guide AI agents and understand the "essence of software engineering" will be critical, especially as development environments shift towards agent-first workflows by 2026. Do not dismiss AI's impact; instead, focus on skill development to remain productive and relevant.

Key insights

Programming language design involves balancing innovation, developer experience, and ecosystem interoperability.

Principles

• Interoperability is crucial for new language adoption.
• Tooling can precede full compilation for early validation.
• Simplicity often hides complex underlying algorithms.

Method

Kotlin's development involved starting with an IDE plugin, drawing inspiration from other languages like C# and Gosu, and adapting to platform-specific requirements like Android's stricter JVM.

In practice

• Explore CodeSpeak for boilerplate reduction.
• Invest in learning AI coding tool proficiency.
• Consider IDEs for future agent-first workflows.

Topics

• Kotlin
• CodeSpeak
• Programming Language Design
• AI Coding Tools
• Software Development

Best for: Software Engineer, AI Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by The Pragmatic Engineer.