java -jar ~/clojure.jar will give you a REPL. It will be a less convenient REPL though. In particular: * No history support. Try to use the arrow to go back to

java -jar ~/clojure.jar will give you a REPL. It will be a less convenient REPL though. In particular: * No history support. Try to use the arrow to go back to the previous instruction and you'll be greeted by ^[[A. * No tab completion. * No exit function. * No startup file with your customizations. * No clojure.contrib automatically in your classhpath. * No simple way to automatically place a list of jars for a given project in the classpath by simply specifying them in a file. java -jar ~/clojure.jar will do. But this, I believe, is nicer.