[K/N] Remove outdated RELEASE_NOTES.md
This document is outdated and doesn't make much sense anymore, since the relevant topics are also covered in the documentation.
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Svyatoslav Scherbina
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Space Team
Space Team
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# Kotlin/Native backend, Beta version #
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## Introduction ##
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_Kotlin/Native_ is an LLVM backend for the Kotlin compiler.
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It consists of a machine code generation facility using the LLVM toolchain
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and a native runtime implementation.
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_Kotlin/Native_ is primarily designed to allow compilation for platforms where
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virtual machines are not desirable or possible (such as iOS or embedded targets),
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or where the developer needs to produce a reasonably-sized self-contained binary
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that doesn't require an additional execution runtime.
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## Supported platforms ##
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The _Kotlin/Native_ compiler produces mostly portable (modulo pointer size and target
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triplet) LLVM bitcode, and as such can easily support any platform, as long as there's an LLVM
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code generator for the platform.
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However, as actually producing native code requires a platform linker and some
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basic runtime shipped along with the translator, we only support a subset of all possible
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target platforms. Currently _Kotlin/Native_ is being shipped and tested with support for
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the following platforms:
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* Mac OS X 10.11 and later (x86-64 and arm64), host and target (`-target macos_x64|macos_arm64`, default on macOS hosts)
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* Ubuntu Linux x86-64 (14.04, 16.04 and later), other Linux flavours may work as well, host and target
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(`-target linux_x64`, default on Linux hosts, hosted on Linux, Windows and macOS).
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* Microsoft Windows x86-64 (tested on Windows 7 and Windows 10), host and target (`-target mingw_x64`,
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default on Windows hosts, hosted on Linux, Windows and macOS).
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* Microsoft Windows x86-32 cross-compiled target (`-target mingw_x86`), hosted on Linux, Windows and macOS.
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* Apple iOS (armv7 and arm64 devices, x86-64 and arm64 simulators), cross-compiled target
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(`-target ios_arm32|ios_arm64|ios_x64|ios_simulator_arm64`), hosted on macOS.
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* Apple tvOS (arm64 devices, x86-64 and arm64 simulators), cross-compiled target
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(`-target tvos_arm64|tvos_x64|tvos_simulator_arm64`), hosted on macOS.
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* Apple watchOS (arm32/arm64 devices, x86/x86-64/arm64 simulators), cross-compiled target
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(`-target watchos_arm32|watchos_arm64|watchos_x86|watchos_x64|watchos_simulator_arm64`), hosted on macOS.
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* Linux arm32 hardfp, Raspberry Pi, cross-compiled target (`-target raspberrypi`), hosted on Linux, Windows and macOS
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* Linux MIPS big endian, cross-compiled target (`-target mips`), hosted on Linux.
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* Linux MIPS little endian, cross-compiled target (`-target mipsel`), hosted on Linux.
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* Android x86 (32 and 64 bit), arm32 and arm64 (`-target android_x86|android_x64|android_arm32|android_arm64`) targets,
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hosted on Linux, macOS and Windows.
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* WebAssembly (`-target wasm32`) target, hosted on Linux, Windows or macOS. Webassembly support is experimental
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and could be discontinued in further releases.
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* Experimental support for Zephyr RTOS (`-target zephyr_stm32f4_disco`) is available on macOS, Linux
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and Windows hosts. "Experimental" here also means that support for this target might be broken at the moment,
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and UX might be disappointing.
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## Compatibility and features ##
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To run _Kotlin/Native_ compiler JDK 8 or later (JDK) for the host platform has to be installed.
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Produced programs are fully self-sufficient and do not need JVM or other runtime.
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On macOS it also requires Xcode 12.5 or newer to be installed.
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The language and library version supported by this release match Kotlin 1.6.
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However, there are certain limitations, see section [Known Limitations](#limitations).
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Currently _Kotlin/Native_ uses reference counting based memory management scheme with a cycle
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collection algorithm. Multiple threads could be used, but objects must be explicitly transferred
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between threads, and same object couldn't be accessed by two threads concurrently unless it is frozen.
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See the relevant [documentation](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-concurrency.html).
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We are going to lift these multithreading restrictions, which involves implementing a new memory manager.
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More details are available in the corresponding roadmap item,
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[KT-49520](https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-49520).
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_Kotlin/Native_ provides efficient bidirectional interoperability with C and Objective-C.
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See [the samples](https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/tree/master/kotlin-native/samples),
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[the documentation, and the tutorials](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-c-interop.html).
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## Getting Started ##
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The most complete experience with Kotlin/Native can be achieved by using
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[Gradle](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-gradle.html),
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[IntelliJ IDEA](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-get-started.html) or
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[Android Studio with KMM plugin](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/mobile/create-first-app.html) if you target iOS.
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If you are interested in using Kotlin/Native for iOS, then
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[Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile portal](https://kotlinlang.org/lp/mobile/) might also be useful for you.
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Command line compiler is also
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[available](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-command-line-compiler.html).
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More information can be found in the overviews of
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[Kotlin/Native](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-overview.html)
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and [Kotlin Multiplatform](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/multiplatform.html).
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## <a name="limitations"></a>Known limitations ##
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### Performance ###
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*** DO NOT USE THIS PREVIEW RELEASE FOR ANY PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS ***
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This beta version of _Kotlin/Native_ technology is not yet tuned
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for benchmarking and competitive analysis of any kind.
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### Standard Library ###
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The standard library in _Kotlin/Native_ is known match common standard library in other Kotlin variants.
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Note, that standard Java APIs, such as `java.math.BigDecimal` or `java.io`
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is not available in current _Kotlin_ standard library, but using C interoperability, one could
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call similar APIs from the POSIX library, see this [`sample`](https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/blob/master/kotlin-native/samples/csvparser).
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Also Kotlin/Native standard library contains certain native-specific extensions, mostly around
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memory management and concurrency.
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### Reflection ###
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Full reflection is not implemented, but class can be referenced and its name could be retrieved.
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Notice that property delegation (including lazy properties) *does* work.
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### Microsoft Windows support ###
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Only 64-bit Windows is currently supported as compilation host, both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows could
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be targets.
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### Debugging ###
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_Kotlin/Native_ supports source-level debugging on produced executables with `lldb` debugger.
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Produce your binary with debugging information by specifying `-g` _Kotlin/Native_ compiler switch.
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See [documentation](https://kotlinlang.org/docs/native-debugging.html) for further information.
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