What is your opinion on Clojure? [closed]

Question

Consider learning it. If for no other reason then because you can actually use it in a real project.

You : Can I use this small Java library called Clojure?
Boss: Why do you need it?
You : For some concurrency improvements.
Boss: Ok.

What you're refering to by Lisp-1 vs Lisp-2 is the question of whether functions and variables share the same name space. In Lisp-1 Lisps, like Scheme and Clojure, they do. In Lisp-2 Lisps, like Common Lisp, they do not. This is mostly a matter of taste and/or convenience - it doesn't affect the power of the programming language.

As an example, in Clojure you can do this:

(defn my-apply [func arg1 arg2]
  (func arg1 arg2))

This is a function that takes a function and two values and applies the function to the values. For example:

user=> (my-apply + 1 2)
3

In Common Lisp, you'd have to write this as

(defun my-apply (func arg1 arg2)
  (funcall func arg1 arg2))

The reason you need "funcall" is that, since "func" is in the name space of variables, you cannot directly use it as a function, like you can in Clojure, which does not make this distinction. So you have to tell Common Lisp "please interpret this variable as a function and call it with these arguments". Another consequence of this is that to get the same result you must call "my-apply" like this:

=> (my-apply #'+ 1 2)
3

Here the problem is reversed: "+" is a function, but you want to pass it as a variable, so you have to "convert" it. "#'+" is short for "(function +)", btw.

I use Clojure and not CL because:

• It communicates well with Java, so I can outsource my coding
• It has access to the zillions of java libraries that do all sorts of things, including Swing and Weka
• Since it runs on the JVM, you can more safely assume that your problem will work everywhere
• If you can show the same libraries being used with much less code, you can convert Java programmers to the lambda way
• And, most importantly, I don't get tied to Emacs

:wq

Clojure is a dialect of LISP so, yes, it's as powerful as LISP.

For no other reason than we now have a good LISP tool for the JVM I like this language.

I think the name is clever.