Why ClojureScript Matters

#1

Post by jonpither » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 12:30 PM UTC

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#2

Post by bobajeff » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:10 PM UTC

By the time JavaScript is being compiled down to WebAssembly you'll probably also be able to have the full Clojure, Scala, Java and other JVM based languages (also .Net languages) compiled down there as well.

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#3

Post by maleghast » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:11 PM UTC

Really enjoyed reading this, Jon, thanks for sharing it :-)

If nothing else it has added another unit of weight to the idea that I need to adopt CljS quickly before I am left completely behind. Now all I need is a project and more free time than I currently have... ;-)

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#4

Post by jwr » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:21 PM UTC

As a data point, I've just written a significant ClojureScript application, using React (Rum for bindings, Datascript for client-side db). It's amazing how quickly one can create complex apps with impressive performance out of the box.

If you haven't used ClojureScript, it is definitely worth looking at.

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#5

Post by aardvark179 » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:24 PM UTC

bobajeff wrote: post #2

By the time JavaScript is being compiled down to WebAssembly you'll probably also be able to have the full Clojure, Scala, Java and other JVM based languages (also .Net languages) compiled down there as well.

That's going to be long time coming. To be a suitable target for higher level languages wasm is going to have to gain GC, method dispatch instructions (preferably with the sort of machinery invokeDynamic on the JVM provides, because method dispatch isn't identical across languages), dynamic code loading, threads, and probably a bunch of other stuff.

Wasm is definitely a good start, but it is only a start right now. It's a good target for AOT languages, but really not suitable for interpreted or JITed ones right now.

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#6

Post by Frozenlock » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:30 PM UTC

If Om hurts your brain, I can't recommend Reagent enough: http://reagent-project.github.io/

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#7

Post by Cshelton » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:32 PM UTC

While clojureScript is awesome and gets you to think differently when writing javascript, I think a more interesting thing people should check out it es6 (or ecmascript 6, or es 2015, w/e it's called now.). It brings many new things to javascript that people from other languages will be used to...likes the "class" syntax. Right now you can write near 100% es6 standard with a pre-compiler. Most use babel. Soon it will run on all the latest browsers without though, making it far better to write then a language that compiles to JS. JS is nice now, I know I know, just give it a try =p

Also, another thing to look at is eithe Facebook's flow or Typescript. It adds some type checking, really great. Especially if you are writing server side in Node.

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#8

Post by manishsharan » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:40 PM UTC

I think that the main argument presented in this blog -- "avoiding splitting" is wrong :Splitting the development into frontend and backend is essential for developing maintainable code for large projects. Having a well defined communication api between backed and frontend defines responsibility for front end and backend developers and also enable better (j)unit test cases. The communication overhead and associated documentation is beneficial in the long run as the code that is produced will be better understood by all , not just the lone developer; it also makes code reviews easier and allows new developers to take over existing code base when necessary. It is immature to think developers will only feel pride in their when they own the entire codebase, the ui-to-db stack; The idea that "Lovingly crafted aesthetics in a codebase is key" is silly; code needs to be testable, well documented and highly optimized and re-usable.The "jostling of positions" are design discussions and they are important part of the software development cycle.

I like Clojure and I am interested in learning ClojureScript but this blog post makes a poor case for it.

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#9

Post by bryanlarsen » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:41 PM UTC

Much more relevant than WASM in 2015 is that modern Javascript development is also moving towards compilation. There's little fundamental difference between compiling ES7 via babel.js vs compiling clojurescript.

Re: Why ClojureScript Matters

#10

Post by bostonOU » Mon, Jun 29, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

Frozenlock wrote: post #6

If Om hurts your brain, I can't recommend Reagent enough: http://reagent-project.github.io/

Can you explain why Om hurts your brain? I've heard other people say similar things, but I've never quite understood why. Is it cursors? Local component state?