Languages and Frameworks Thoughtworks Technology Radar in IDEs and, ultimately, to produce code that is easier to read and maintain. For teams already using Kotlin, it also means working on the build in a familiar language. We now suggest trialing Kotlin DSL as an alternative language to Groovy for Gradle projects in general, especially if you have large or complex Gradle build scripts. Many IDEs now include support for the migration of existing projects. Some caveats remain, and we suggest checking the documentation for the most up-to-date details, including the prerequisites. We had a team with an at least seven-year-old, 450-line build script migrate successfully within a few days. 86. Jetpack Media3 Trial Android had several media APIs: Jetpack Media, also known as MediaCompat, Jetpack Media2 and ExoPlayer. Unfortunately, these libraries were developed independently, with different goals but overlapping functionality. Android developers not only had to choose which library to use, they also had to contend with writing adaptors or other connecting code when features from multiple APIs were needed. Jetpack Media3 is an API that takes common areas of functionality from the existing APIs — including UI, playback and media session handling — and combines them into a merged and refined API. The player interface from ExoPlayer has also been updated, enhanced and streamlined to act as the common player interface for Media3. After an early access phase, Media3 is now in beta. Although its first release is forthcoming, we’ve already had positive experiences using it in apps. 87. Ladle Trial As Storybook grew in popularity, it became more and more of a behemoth. If all you really care about is isolating and testing your React UI components, then Ladle is the alternative. Ladle supports most of the Storybook API (MDX files are not supported yet) and can be used as a drop-in replacement. It is lightweight and has better integration with Vite. It also provides simple and clean APIs that can be easily integrated with other testing frameworks. 88. Moshi Trial We’re hearing that our Kotlin-based teams are seeking alternatives to Java frameworks such as GSON when handling JSON. Although it’s been around for some time, Moshi has now emerged as a preferred framework for many of these teams. It’s easy to migrate from GSON and Moshi provides native support for Kotlin non-nullable types and default parameters. Moshi makes working with JSON faster and easier. If you’re currently using a Java framework from within Kotlin to handle JSON, we recommend giving Moshi a try. 89. Svelte Trial Among web component frameworks, Svelte stands out by moving reactivity out of the browser and into the compiler. Instead of optimizing DOM updates by using a virtual DOM and browser optimization tricks, Svelte compiles your code into vanilla framework-less JavaScript code that surgically updates the DOM directly. In addition to the run-time performance benefits, this also allows Svelte to optimize © Thoughtworks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 38