Live data from Hacker News

Clojure Distilled

yogthos.github.io

11–20 of 54 posts

Re: Clojure Distilled

#12
I'm not done reading but it seems like a very nice introduction to people not familiar with the function style of programming.

This is also one of the few document that can be converted from html to epub without much pain. It looks quite good with

    pandoc ClojureDistilled.html -o ClojureDistilled.epub --indented-code-classes=clojure

Re: Clojure Distilled

#13
post #9

I'm currently learning Clojure. For all the "aha!" moments, there are plenty of "WTFs?", too. Not that it's a fault of the language, it's just that it requires a different way of looking at things. I've only skimmed this article, but look forward to reading it in depth later. Thanks! I'd be interested if anyone has some similar pieces to share.

Most of my Clojure WTFs were not related to the language itself, but rather the tooling. This was years ago, but everyone used to say, "Before diving into Clojure, you should really learn emacs and all these other things first." I'm glad I ignored them and sputtered along in a text editor while learning the basics of the language, because I would've otherwise burnt out. With apps like Light Table now available, maybe…

Good to know! I started with emacs, but decided to use Light Table for now. Nothing against emacs, but I don't want to make things harder by learning a new language and a new editor at the same time. Aside from Light Table (and presumably Leiningen) do you have any other tooling recommendations?

Re: Clojure Distilled

#14
post #9

I'm currently learning Clojure. For all the "aha!" moments, there are plenty of "WTFs?", too. Not that it's a fault of the language, it's just that it requires a different way of looking at things. I've only skimmed this article, but look forward to reading it in depth later. Thanks! I'd be interested if anyone has some similar pieces to share.

So I'm about half way through it now. I'm really impressed with how much information it's conveying in a succinct form. I'm going through Clojure for the Brave and True, and think this supplements it nicely.

There are a few typos, but the most glaring one was the incomplete python code underneath the "Code Structure" heading:

l = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

for i in l i = i*i

for i in l if (i mod 2 == 0)

print l

I assume the author wanted to show how the list was mutated. And those conditionals need trailing colons :)

Re: Clojure Distilled

#15
post #9

I'm currently learning Clojure. For all the "aha!" moments, there are plenty of "WTFs?", too. Not that it's a fault of the language, it's just that it requires a different way of looking at things. I've only skimmed this article, but look forward to reading it in depth later. Thanks! I'd be interested if anyone has some similar pieces to share.

My personal favorite editor is IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition + cursiveclojure.com plugin (not affiliated with the cursiveclojure.com people but highly recommend it). I don't come from an Emacs background but from what I've seen and heard from Emacs people is that it combines all the best parts of Emacs when it comes to Lisp code manipulation.

Re: Clojure Distilled

#16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of my Clojure WTFs were not related to the language itself, but rather the tooling. This was years ago, but everyone used to say, "Before diving into Clojure, you should really learn emacs and all these other things first." I'm glad I ignored them and sputtered along in a text editor while learning the basics of the language, because I would've otherwise burnt out. With apps like Light Table now available, maybe…

Good to know! I started with emacs, but decided to use Light Table for now. Nothing against emacs, but I don't want to make things harder by learning a new language and a new editor at the same time. Aside from Light Table (and presumably Leiningen) do you have any other tooling recommendations?

I chose to learn both at the same time, and would recommend it if you're willing to buckle down for a month or two of frustration. I really feel like I further developed my ability to go head first into learning in a way I had in the past. Still learning a lot though about both. I should mention that I'm a freelancer; if I was an employee it might be hard to get a way with spending so much time learning rather than producing in the short-term.

Re: Clojure Distilled

#17
I love clojure, and dream of the day I can work with it.

But do you know why more people get into ruby or js? It's community is beginner friendly. Most texts on the subject of lisps feel like wannabe dissertations, preferably with the Computer Modern font and 5 pages long.

Re: Clojure Distilled

#18

That link is down for me, but I think this is the same content? http://yogthos.github.io/ClojureDistilled.html

also this works via rawgit: https://cdn.rawgit.com/yogthos/yogthos.github.com/master/Clo...

But the "real" URL also would have proper CSS etc. and looks slightly less broken.

Re: Clojure Distilled

#19
I've been working with Clojure for 18 months now, after a bit more than 10 years of Java. I'm having so much fun I don't think I could ever go back.

Also, this is an excellent summary / introduction to key clojure concepts, well done to the author.

Post reply on HN