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Learning Clojure Made Easy

137 points by ertucetin 9y ago

hellofunk 9y ago
Not clear if the site does this or not, but it would be good for the Clojure community if the course covered a lot in Clojurescript (or even focused on it). I think the browser development audience is likely much larger than the JVM audience, and Clojurescript and its ecosystem are an area that particularly shines in the industry.
- ertucetin 9y ago
  hi I'm author of the site, You are right! I'm also considering to add Clojurescript feature to Clojurecademy(it does not have at the moment) and this would be very useful for browser development audience like you said.
  - trimaster 9y ago
    Hi, have you also considered forgoing (or delaying) the sign-up step for your site? I would love to try without having to register.
    - ertucetin 9y ago
      hey, actually I did not until lots of people started asking for it. I did not think that that would be a problem, if I did before I would not have asked for sign up. I guess I need to find a way for that. Thank you for your suggestion!
- flavio81 9y ago
  Great to read this; i want to start doing a bit of Clojure and this is a great suggestion: to start from the browser-side.
  - hellofunk 9y ago
    You can use cljs everywhere because nearly all platforms have JS support. Not true with Clojure on JVM. I use cljs on iOS.
    - dkersten 9y ago
      Technically, Clojure can run on a number of platforms, but in practice, Android and such, JVM startup is too slow. I do love cljs though, since it can run on mobile, node (including aws lambda), browser etc.
mollusk 9y ago
My advice would be allowing to start take a course without signing up, and offering to create an account during the learning process "to save progress" i.e. the way Codecademy does it (as far as I remember).
- ertucetin 9y ago
  Actually Codecademy requires sign up as well
- dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
  Fortunately it accepts throwaway e-mails so you can test it anyway.
- bdibs 9y ago
  I want to say Duolingo does something very similar to what you describe.
dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
> Please copy and paste the following code and click Run. > (+ 1 2 3) I typed (+ 3 3 3) and lo and behold... > 2. instruction failed. > Apparently you did not copy and paste properly.Please check copy paste order. What on Earth? Please don't make programmers feel like copy & paste monkeys - many other sites are doing this it already.
- ertucetin 9y ago
  It was just a start for beginners actually, trying to explain concept of the editor/site etc. Please do check following sections...
  - bmn__ 9y ago
    Ertu, is that how you deal with criticism? Instead of admonishing your audience, cherish the response, never again you shall get the opportunity to receive such honest and instructive feedback.
    - ertucetin 9y ago
      Actually I was not trying to be mean, I wanted to explain something, if you got me wrong sorry about that I could have been more clear.Of course I'm glad that everyone is providing feedbacks.
- _e 9y ago
  Instead of instructing users to "copy & paste", encourage users to manually type it out so the concept is retained better. Just taking a page out of Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way.
- freehunter 9y ago
  Copy and paste might be the wrong method to use, but following directions isn't hard. It's not a REPL, it's a tutorial. Typing something wrong should cause you to fail the lesson.
  - 9y ago
justaquickquest 9y ago
Serious question: what problems does Clojure solve for programmers? Every time I try a new and interesting language I end up saying "Gee, that was pretty fun I guess" and then go back to whatever it is that I was using prior to that. I have never been able to justify moving away from Python or C. Learning a new language can be fun and enlightening in it's own ways, but it also feels like a waste of time. Just curious if anyone can add some perspective.
- enraged_camel 9y ago
  Not sure why your comment got flagged. I think it's a valid question that deserves an informed answer.
  - justaquickquest 9y ago
    Yeah I genuinely would like an answer haha. I'm certainly not trying to start an argument I just don't know anyone personally who uses these designer languages (might be an unfair term) so I'm relatively uninformed.
- cle 9y ago
  If you've ever done concurrent programming in Java I think you'd appreciate many of the design decisions made in Clojure. That's one of the biggest practical benefits. Also Clojure is dynamic to an extreme (like most lisps), which can make complex programs rather easy and short to write, which might be appropriate for some use cases. I do a lot of data munging, and I've tried many languages for it (Python, Scala, R, Java, Groovy, JS, Clojure), and Clojure is by far my favorite for clarity, simplicity, and speed. And because the REPL toolchain (CIDER/Cursive) is head and shoulders above the rest (except maybe iPython).
  - justaquickquest 9y ago
    Interesting, I only have a passing familiarity with Java from school so I wonder if I'm just not appreciating what Clojure brings to the table in that regard. Thanks for the response.
kul_ 9y ago
Learning clojure is relatively easy, the hard part would be to get paid for writing it.
- ertucetin 9y ago
  If language gets enough attention over time, there will be more job opportunities so that's a start I guess :)
joeevans1000 9y ago
Thank you for what was probably a lot of hard work to get this site together! I appreciate it a lot.
- ertucetin 9y ago
  You are welcome!

137 points by ertucetin 9y ago

Not clear if the site does this or not, but it would be good for the Clojure community if the course covered a lot in Clojurescript (or even focused on it). I think the browser development audience is likely much larger than the JVM audience, and Clojurescript and its ecosystem are an area that particularly shines in the industry.

ertucetin 9y ago
hi I'm author of the site, You are right! I'm also considering to add Clojurescript feature to Clojurecademy(it does not have at the moment) and this would be very useful for browser development audience like you said.
- trimaster 9y ago
  Hi, have you also considered forgoing (or delaying) the sign-up step for your site? I would love to try without having to register.
  - ertucetin 9y ago
    hey, actually I did not until lots of people started asking for it. I did not think that that would be a problem, if I did before I would not have asked for sign up. I guess I need to find a way for that. Thank you for your suggestion!
flavio81 9y ago
Great to read this; i want to start doing a bit of Clojure and this is a great suggestion: to start from the browser-side.
- hellofunk 9y ago
  You can use cljs everywhere because nearly all platforms have JS support. Not true with Clojure on JVM. I use cljs on iOS.
  - dkersten 9y ago
    Technically, Clojure can run on a number of platforms, but in practice, Android and such, JVM startup is too slow. I do love cljs though, since it can run on mobile, node (including aws lambda), browser etc.

mollusk 9y ago

My advice would be allowing to start take a course without signing up, and offering to create an account during the learning process "to save progress" i.e. the way Codecademy does it (as far as I remember).

ertucetin 9y ago
Actually Codecademy requires sign up as well
dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
Fortunately it accepts throwaway e-mails so you can test it anyway.
bdibs 9y ago
I want to say Duolingo does something very similar to what you describe.

dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago

> Please copy and paste the following code and click Run. > (+ 1 2 3) I typed (+ 3 3 3) and lo and behold... > 2. instruction failed. > Apparently you did not copy and paste properly.Please check copy paste order. What on Earth? Please don't make programmers feel like copy & paste monkeys - many other sites are doing this it already.

ertucetin 9y ago
It was just a start for beginners actually, trying to explain concept of the editor/site etc. Please do check following sections...
- bmn__ 9y ago
  Ertu, is that how you deal with criticism? Instead of admonishing your audience, cherish the response, never again you shall get the opportunity to receive such honest and instructive feedback.
  - ertucetin 9y ago
    Actually I was not trying to be mean, I wanted to explain something, if you got me wrong sorry about that I could have been more clear.Of course I'm glad that everyone is providing feedbacks.
_e 9y ago
Instead of instructing users to "copy & paste", encourage users to manually type it out so the concept is retained better. Just taking a page out of Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard Way.
freehunter 9y ago
Copy and paste might be the wrong method to use, but following directions isn't hard. It's not a REPL, it's a tutorial. Typing something wrong should cause you to fail the lesson.
- 9y ago

justaquickquest 9y ago

Serious question: what problems does Clojure solve for programmers? Every time I try a new and interesting language I end up saying "Gee, that was pretty fun I guess" and then go back to whatever it is that I was using prior to that. I have never been able to justify moving away from Python or C. Learning a new language can be fun and enlightening in it's own ways, but it also feels like a waste of time. Just curious if anyone can add some perspective.

enraged_camel 9y ago
Not sure why your comment got flagged. I think it's a valid question that deserves an informed answer.
- justaquickquest 9y ago
  Yeah I genuinely would like an answer haha. I'm certainly not trying to start an argument I just don't know anyone personally who uses these designer languages (might be an unfair term) so I'm relatively uninformed.
cle 9y ago
If you've ever done concurrent programming in Java I think you'd appreciate many of the design decisions made in Clojure. That's one of the biggest practical benefits. Also Clojure is dynamic to an extreme (like most lisps), which can make complex programs rather easy and short to write, which might be appropriate for some use cases. I do a lot of data munging, and I've tried many languages for it (Python, Scala, R, Java, Groovy, JS, Clojure), and Clojure is by far my favorite for clarity, simplicity, and speed. And because the REPL toolchain (CIDER/Cursive) is head and shoulders above the rest (except maybe iPython).
- justaquickquest 9y ago
  Interesting, I only have a passing familiarity with Java from school so I wonder if I'm just not appreciating what Clojure brings to the table in that regard. Thanks for the response.

kul_ 9y ago

Learning clojure is relatively easy, the hard part would be to get paid for writing it.

ertucetin 9y ago
If language gets enough attention over time, there will be more job opportunities so that's a start I guess :)

joeevans1000 9y ago

Thank you for what was probably a lot of hard work to get this site together! I appreciate it a lot.

ertucetin 9y ago
You are welcome!