JetBrains has been experimenting with ways to improve the development experience for developers, focusing on both project definition and tooling support. One of these projects, called Amper, is now being shared publicly for feedback.
Amper is designed as a tool to enhance the user experience of project configuration, particularly focused on aspects like building, packaging, and publishing.
Its primary focus is on configuring projects for building, and it currently supports Kotlin, Kotlin Multiplatform, Java, and Swift (as a requirement for multiplatform), and the team is working on extending support to other languages and technology stacks in the future,. It is currently implemented as a Gradle plugin using YAML for project configuration,, according to the team behind the project in a post.
The decision to use YAML over Kotlin as the markup language is driven by a desire for a declarative approach. This choice aims to simplify configuration, reduce errors, and improve tooling support. Although the decision on the markup language is not final, the JetBrains team believes that a declarative approach is crucial for achieving these goals. The use of Gradle as the underlying build tool provides a solid foundation for Amper, allowing the team to focus on creating a configuration layer to enhance the user experience.
The primary aim at this experimental stage is to gather user feedback and refine the tool’s functionality based on real-world usage and developer input.
