Clojure is a general-purpose language supporting interactive development that encourages a functional programming style, and simplifies multithreaded programming.

learn more… | top users | synonyms

0
votes
1answer
40 views

What is the exact semantic of reduce in clojure?

The Clojure docs regarding (reduce f val coll) state: If val is supplied, returns the result of applying f to val and the first item in coll, then applying f to that result and the 2nd item, ...
0
votes
1answer
57 views

Is Clojure development required to be open-source?

This question could be generalized to any language where the language development is open-source, potentially, but I'm most curious about Clojure specifically. If Clojure (as a language) is ...
5
votes
2answers
352 views

How do people get rid of conditional branches in Functional Programming?

Long running switch cases or if-else-if constructs are avoided in OOP using polymorphism wherever it is applicable. instead of branching by matching a value, branching is done at class-level itself. ...
6
votes
2answers
183 views

When would I require a Macro instead of a function?

I am new to Clojure, I am new to Macros and I have no prior background in Lisp. I went on to create my own switch case like form and ended up with this: (defmacro switch-case [v cases default] (if ...
27
votes
4answers
2k views

What did Rich Hickey mean when he said, “All that specificity [of interfaces/classes/types] kills your reuse!”

In Rich Hickey's thought-provoking goto conference keynote "The Value of Values" at 29 minutes he's talking about the overhead of a language like Java and makes a statement like, "All those interfaces ...
-1
votes
2answers
64 views

Are there any Clojure libraries for p2p? [closed]

I'm a web developer, but lately I have been learning Clojure and now I'm interested in creating a p2p application. And since Clojure is a general purpose language, I guess I can just use that. Any ...
6
votes
2answers
591 views

Could we build a functional computer?

As mush as FP has done, in the end, all our programs are structured. That is, it doesn't matter how pure or functional we make a them - they are always translated to assembly, so what actually runs ...
6
votes
1answer
444 views

How to write readable Clojure Code?

I am new to Clojure. I can understand the code I write but it becomes too difficult to understand it later. It becomes difficult to match parentheses. What's the generic conventions to follow ...
6
votes
5answers
2k views

Is Clojure's syntax really simpler than Scala's? [closed]

Argument which is always made in favour of Clojure is that. The syntax is simpler and there is only one way of expressing code with no complicated rules. However Scala has loads of different types ...
6
votes
2answers
708 views

Is Haskell/Clojure actually unsuited for dynamic systems such as particle simulation?

I've been told in previous questions that functional programming languages are unsuited for dynamic systems such as a physics engine, mainly because it's costly to mutate objects. How realistic is ...
5
votes
2answers
314 views

Are square brackets and curly braces in Clojure still S-expressions?

I am trying to learn Lisp and looking at all the Lisps out there and their differences. I see that in some implementations of Scheme, you can use square brackets interchangeably with round brackets ...
1
vote
2answers
810 views

clojure/erlang/go for high volume server

I have a project that will need to handle 1000s of requests a second with a decent amount of processing for each. For the most part, the processing will be done on a list of items, basically ...
9
votes
4answers
1k views

In what programming language did “let” first appear?

I was wondering about the origins of the "let" used in Lisp, Clojure, and Haskell. Does anyone know which language it appeared in first?
2
votes
4answers
624 views

What are the practical benefits of LISP like syntax which Clojure uses over Java like syntax of Scala?

I spent couple of months learning Scala and got overwhelmed by number of different constructs it had, After looking at partial functions, partially-applied functions, pattern matching, actor syntax, I ...
9
votes
3answers
431 views

Byte code weaving vs Lisp macros

I have been reading about the libraries people have written for languages like Java and C# that make use of byte code weaving to do things like intercept function calls, insert logging code, etc. I ...
8
votes
1answer
134 views

Accessing the history of a `ref` in Clojure

The documentation for ref shows a :max-history option and states that "refs accumulate history dynamically as needed to deal with read demands." I can see that there is history at the REPL, but I ...
3
votes
1answer
401 views

Is Clojure a 3GL or a 4GL?

A bit of background (in case I'm mistaken)... I think I understand that (it's an oversimplification): manually entering codes into memory (or on a punchcard) is "first generation language" using ...
11
votes
2answers
714 views

How will the new development of Java influence its interoperability with languages like Scala and Clojure?

As far as I understand, both Scala and Clojure have been designed as new languages that depend on the JVM, and easily integrate with Java code, in the sense that they allow to use Java classes ...
4
votes
2answers
150 views

Determinism of functions using PRNG in Clojure and functional languages

I'm a bit surprised by a sentence found in the book "Clojure Programming" (1st [and only as I write this!?] edition), page 78: It should be obvious that it's impossible to deterministically test a ...
12
votes
3answers
4k views

What's so great about Clojure? [closed]

I've been taking a look at Clojure lately and I stumbled upon this post on Stackoverflow that indicates some projects following best practices, and overall good Clojure code. I wanted to get my head ...
7
votes
3answers
532 views

Why can't we write nested shorthand functions in Clojure?

I tried to evaluate a Clojure expression with nested shorthand functions today, and it wouldn't let me. The expression was: (#(+ % (#(+ % (* % %)) %)) 5) ; sorry for the eye bleed The output was: ...
5
votes
2answers
629 views

Can Clojure's thread-based agents handle c10k performance?

I'm writing a c10k-style service and am trying to evaluate Clojure's performance. Can Clojure agents handle this scale of concurrency with its thread-based agents? Other high performance systems ...
5
votes
1answer
221 views

Setting up Clojure Project And Sub Projects

This is primarily a lein question about setting up a major project and its sub-projects, and is not intended to be a discussion question. Instead, I am interested in either a pointer to documentation ...
3
votes
2answers
258 views

Alternate method to dependent, nested if statements to check multiple states

Is there an easier way to process multiple true/false states than using nested if statements? I think there is, and it would be to create a sequence of states, and then use a function like when to ...
1
vote
1answer
203 views

Understanding clojure keywords

I'm taking my first steps with Clojure. Otherwise, I'm somewhat competent with JavaScript, Python, Java, and a little C. I was reading this artical that describes destructuring vectors and maps. E.g. ...
0
votes
1answer
86 views

What does using (vec col) or (vector arg1 & args) cost?

I am working through some Lips exercises using Clojure. If I were to convert Lisp lists to Clojure vectors, solving some of the problems would be simpler, so here is my question: Does using vec or ...
8
votes
9answers
1k views

OS choice for functional developing

I'm mainly a .NET developer so I normaly use Windows/VisualStudio (that means: I'm spoiled) but I'm enjoying Haskell and other (mostly functional) languagues in my spare time. Now for Haskell the ...
10
votes
2answers
2k views

Is shipping a Clojure desktop app realistic?

I'm currently shipping a desktop Java application. It is a plain old Java 5 Java / Swing app and so far everything worked nicely. Java 5 was targetted because some users were on OS X version / ...
10
votes
1answer
708 views

Does Clojure have the continuation?

I started programming with Python. When using python, concepts like coroutine, closure made me really confusing. Now I think I know them some superficial level, but I want to get the "enlightement" ...
3
votes
1answer
96 views

For csv database extracts, how do map keys not create a dependency?

A lot of my work is done with .csv extracts (reports) from databases. As I have been programming in Clojure, I've received comments that relying on vector indexes creates dependencies. I understand ...
21
votes
4answers
2k views

What limitations does the JVM impose on tail-call optimization

Clojure does not perform tail call optimization on its own: when you have a tail recursive function and you want to have it optimized, you have to use the special form recur. Similarly, if you have ...
4
votes
3answers
332 views

Clojure state and persistence

I'm learning Clojure to see if it's something I can leverage at my current job, and more importantly, how I can convince my bosses that Clojure has a 'killer feature' over java that makes it worth the ...
5
votes
2answers
182 views

Can the Clojure set and maps syntax be added to other Lisp dialects?

In addition to create list using parentheses, Clojure allows to create vectors using [ ], maps using { } and sets using #{ }. Lisp is always said to be a very extensible language in which you can ...
2
votes
2answers
377 views

What are examples of Lisp's accomplishments? [closed]

I've more than once heard that sometimes a few individuals come up with great accomplishments from using Lisp. What are those refering to? What are concrete examples of people using Lisp to create ...
1
vote
2answers
157 views

Is it bad form to stage a function's steps in intermediate variables (let bindings)?

I find I tend to need intermediate variables. In Clojure that's in the form of let bindings, like cmp-result-1 and cmp-result-2 in the following function. (defn str-cmp "Takes two strings and ...
3
votes
2answers
340 views

What is a dotted pair's analogy in other Lisp implementations?

What is Scheme's dotted pair construct analogous to in other Lisp implementations? I can make a vector or list quite easily, and understand those in Clojure, even though the syntax is a little ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views

Scala or Clojure Functional Programming best practices

I did a lot of self-study coding, got some experience with Parallel Programming Models: Actors, Software Transactional Memory, Data Flow. When I am trying to apply these architectures to real life - ...
6
votes
2answers
212 views

Language that can statically ensure a map's fields are present

If data is simple and objects are complex, I'm curious if there are any existing statically typed languages that would be able to augment(?) a map type into a type with guaranteed fields. I realize ...
4
votes
1answer
603 views

Clojure: vars, atoms, and refs (oh my)

also: defs, java fields, agents The clojure website has documentation for these concepts: Vars Atoms Refs Agents I understand the words, but I don't conceptually get the purpose / meaning of ...
3
votes
1answer
225 views

Is re-defing idiomatic in clojure?

Simple example: (def ticks 0) (defn run-iteration [] (def ticks (inc ticks))) Though the usual case involves things that don't change more than once every several hundred ms. How to do this ...
3
votes
4answers
2k views

Using Clojure instead of Python for scalability (multi core) reasons, good idea?

After reading http://clojure.org/rationale and other performance comparisons between Clojure and many languages, I started to think that apart from ease of use, I shouldn't be coding in Python ...
-2
votes
2answers
389 views

How to create an abbreviation for words like `function` in Clojure where the obvious one (`fn`) is taken? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What do you do when your naming convention clashes with your language? Edit: This was a bad question. Original: For example, we talk about functions in Clojure but ...
9
votes
3answers
365 views

Making LISPs manageable

I am trying to learn Clojure, which seems a good candidate for a successful LISP. I have no problem with the concepts, but now I would like to start actually doing something. Here it comes my ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views

Getting started with ClojureScript and Google Closure

I would like to investigate whether ClojureScript, with the associated Google Closure library is a reasonable tool to build modern, in-browser, Javascript applications. My current Javascript stack ...
31
votes
13answers
1k views

Problems (such as maintenance) in development with unpopular language

I'm developing some application with clojure(lisp) alone in my team. It starts as small application. No problem. But as it's having features and extending the area, it's becoming important program. I ...
13
votes
3answers
843 views

How independent is Clojure from Java?

I am quite new to the Clojure world. I appreciate the fact that one has easy access to all Java libraries via Clojure interop features, but I was wondering how much Clojure stands on its own legs. Of ...
13
votes
6answers
2k views

Best practices in comment writing and documentation

Commenting nowadays is easier than ever. In Java, there are some nice techniques for linking comments to classes, and Java IDEs are good at making comment shells for you. Languages like Clojure even ...
2
votes
5answers
537 views

Programming language with native concurrency support for large graphs?

I'm currently looking for a new programming language to learn (currently working through some C++, know some C and Python), specifically one that has built-in concurrency support? I want to try to ...
8
votes
1answer
603 views

What are the essential Clojure libraries to learn beyond the basics of “core”

I am teaching myself Clojure. I've started using Leiningen, I'm working on Clojure Koans, plan to do LabREPL next, and will have a look at Noir. My question is: what are the essential "must know" ...
13
votes
3answers
3k views

On the path to Enlightenment: Scheme, Common Lisp, Clojure? [closed]

A lot of people smarter than me keep writing about when you learn Lisp it makes you a better programmer because you "get it". Maybe all I hear about Lisp(s) changing your life is just a big practical ...