Looking at https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/releases/tag/v1.3.0, there is a generic multi-platform zip file (kotlin-compiler-1.3.0.zip) and some platform-specific ones (e.g. kotlin-compiler-1.3.0-release-windows-x64.zip). Looking inside the zip files, the differences seem to be that the platform-specific installations contain some native executables (e.g. .dll or .so files) and uses its own pre-built JRE, whereas the multiplatform version seems to be pure Java.
Is this the only difference, or do the platform-specific installations contain some extra features over and above the pure Java version?
Would it be safer to use the pure Java version, since my Java 1.8u192 release is later than the one Kotlin 1.3 was built with?
The platform-specific installations are AOT-compiled using Excelsior JET. That's the only difference; there are no extra platform-specific features.