Posts Tagged ‘AndersSveen’
[KotlinConf2025] Simplifying Full-Stack Kotlin: A Fresh Take with HTMX and Ktor
Becoming a full-stack developer is a highly sought-after and valuable skill in today’s tech landscape, allowing individuals to own features from start to finish and make holistic architectural decisions. This versatility is particularly important for small teams and startups. However, the role can be intimidating due to the extensive list of technologies one is expected to master, including Kubernetes, Postgres, Kotlin, Ktor, and numerous JavaScript frameworks. Anders Sveen’s talk challenges this complexity, proposing a simpler, more streamlined approach to web development by using HTMX and Ktor with Kotlin.
The Case for Simplicity
Sveen poses a crucial question: do we truly need all this complexity when HTML and CSS remain stable, unlike the ever-changing frontend frameworks?. He argues that many applications don’t require the overhead of a modern JavaScript Single Page Application (SPA), since everything ultimately renders to HTML anyway. His proposed solution uses technologies like HTMX, AlpineJS, and Unpoly, which build upon HTML and CSS rather than replacing them, allowing developers to achieve 98% of SPA functionality with significantly less frontend code and complexity.
A Synergistic Solution
The core of the presentation demonstrates how HTMX and kotlinx.html combine with Ktor to build modern, interactive web applications. The stack offers a refreshing simplicity, leveraging Ktor’s powerful backend capabilities, kotlinx.html’s type-safe HTML generation, and HTMX’s elegant method for handling frontend interactions. The talk also highlights how this simplified stack can reduce the need for microservices and complex technical setups by minimizing unnecessary coordination within development teams. Sveen, with 20 years of experience, emphasizes that this approach allows developers to be more full-stack, enabling them to quickly take an idea, deliver a solution, and learn from user feedback.