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A Clojure learning journey

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Re: A Clojure learning journey

#31

Post by jcadam »

_sdegutis wrote: post #21
scardine wrote: post #12

I just got rejected in a hiring process at Nubank (a sexy fintec from Brazil that uses clojure a lot) because I used a database for the take-home code challenge they sent me (writing a REST API). Since I'm a Python developer who knows little about concurrency in clojure and I would not like to use locks, I thought it would be better to delegate these things to the database. Apparently I was supposed to use a global s…

Having 5 years professional experience with Clojure, I applied a few months ago to a remote Clojure job, and the coding test was none other than recursion via zippers, literally my weakest point. I could have done the job just fine since they said they didn’t use zippers on the job, but failed the test and they passed on me. Coding tests are the real problem. I’ve had some great ones where you can tell someone put ef…

Yea, a proper technical interview needs have more breadth to mean anything. This question is pretty dang close to esoteric language features trivia. Which would have flustered me when I was young, but now just makes me angry and I'd probably (want to) launch a dry-erase marker at your head.

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#32

Post by Double_a_92 »

I always read about those nice functional languages, but when I try to learn them myself I struggle pretty hard.

Can anybody point me to some small (5k LOC maybe) project on github that solves some "real world" problem?

I'd like to get some overview. As opposed to the usual tutorials that start with the very basics and don't seem to get anywhere...

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#33

Post by scardine »

jcadam wrote: post #28
scardine wrote: post #12

I just got rejected in a hiring process at Nubank (a sexy fintec from Brazil that uses clojure a lot) because I used a database for the take-home code challenge they sent me (writing a REST API). Since I'm a Python developer who knows little about concurrency in clojure and I would not like to use locks, I thought it would be better to delegate these things to the database. Apparently I was supposed to use a global s…

I had a similar assignment when I applied for a remote Clojure job at a startup in California. Create a REST API in Clojure (which I can do in my sleep at this point). I decided to use a database (in my case, H2) along with HugSQL because it handled some of the requirements for me (unique constraints, etc.), and I'm comfortable with databases. I could have done it in code using a collection (and used filter/map/reduc…

HugSQL is very handy - used it for my solution also.

Coming from Django Rest Framework I felt at home with Compojure-API.

Hearing "you are overqualified" is awful.

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#34

Post by robstu »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #32

I always read about those nice functional languages, but when I try to learn them myself I struggle pretty hard. Can anybody point me to some small (5k LOC maybe) project on github that solves some "real world" problem? I'd like to get some overview. As opposed to the usual tutorials that start with the very basics and don't seem to get anywhere...

This is exactly the reason I'm doing this :-)

From my past efforts, I can offer you https://github.com/cognician/datomic-doc, which is a riff on the idea of marrying a Markdown editor to doc strings on entities in a Datomic database.

It exposes a handful of Ring handlers as a library, so you can plug it into any Ring web app that uses Datomic and get a turn-key tech doc system.

It's a complete Clojure/ClojureScript/Datomic application, and it's only 800 lines.

I hope it helps you, and feedback is totally welcome!

As for 'book learning'; Living Clojure by Carin Meier is currently in the USD 1 Humble Bundle at https://www.humblebundle.com/books/functional-programming-bo.... It has a 13 week FP course in it. Highly recommended.

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#35

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #32

I always read about those nice functional languages, but when I try to learn them myself I struggle pretty hard. Can anybody point me to some small (5k LOC maybe) project on github that solves some "real world" problem? I'd like to get some overview. As opposed to the usual tutorials that start with the very basics and don't seem to get anywhere...

It’s not Clojure, but the practical chapters in the book Practical Common Lisp might be a good way to get a feel for the way a Lisp works in a practical application.

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#36

Post by pvinis »

Everytime I use clojure for some new project because I think it will help, I end up spending too much time on tooling and setup, and in the end change it to something easier to setup, which strangely that's javascript sometimes. I want to go work in a team where they have it ready for me and I can learn the tooling on the way, without needing to do that up front..

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#37

Post by justaguyhere »

jacquesm wrote: post #23
justaguyhere wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technical writers worth their salt are few and far between. Could you please expand on this one? Do you mean people who write help guides for OS/APIs, or do people who write industry reports or is it something different? Also, do you have any examples of such people/jobs? This is something that is very interesting to me but I have no idea where to start.

Just to give a few examples: We produce about one report per week, The companies we work for tend to have people on the business side that have certain ideas about requirements which then need to be translated into technical specifications, typically so that some outsourcing company can make soup of it. In both cases mistakes can be quite costly. There is this thread right now about 'what HN has given you', and if th…

Thank You.

How does one get into these kind of writing jobs, for someone with a programming background?

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#38

Post by jacquesm »

justaguyhere wrote: post #37
jacquesm wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to give a few examples: We produce about one report per week, The companies we work for tend to have people on the business side that have certain ideas about requirements which then need to be translated into technical specifications, typically so that some outsourcing company can make soup of it. In both cases mistakes can be quite costly. There is this thread right now about 'what HN has given you', and if th…

Thank You. How does one get into these kind of writing jobs, for someone with a programming background?

Go talk to places that produce reports: M&A outfits, VCs, research companies and so on.

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#39

Post by akmiller »

pvinis wrote: post #36

Everytime I use clojure for some new project because I think it will help, I end up spending too much time on tooling and setup, and in the end change it to something easier to setup, which strangely that's javascript sometimes. I want to go work in a team where they have it ready for me and I can learn the tooling on the way, without needing to do that up front..

I don't know how long it's been since you tried but I'd suggest giving it another go. The tooling today is what makes it one of the best experiences out there. The front-end tooling especially!

Re: A Clojure learning journey

#40

Post by spiralganglion »

robstu wrote: post #7
whalesalad wrote: post #4

Not sure why the excitement around ditching Lein when it looks like there is little or nothing to be gained at this time? The author describes a handful of other tools that are necessary to do things Lein does out of the box (uberjar) The Clojure ecosystem (specifically through the lens of this post) reminds me of the Linux desktop ecosystem. Lots and lots of tweaks and knobs and dials for the sake of having tweaks a…

It wasn't so much about ditching Lein as it was taking a clean-slate opportunity to learn and understand the new CLI tooling. Nothing wrong with Lein at all! Knobs and dials: this is true of every eco-system, wouldn't you say? Is 2018 the year of the linux desktop, finally? :-) I agree that Clojure has a lot. Right assumes a known context. Do what is right for you. Sometimes, that's Knob A, and sometimes that's Dial…

As a newcomer, I want sensible defaults. I want a Rails. Let me wait to learn the knobs and dials when I’ve got enough base knowledge to evaluate them fairly.
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