I think the important difference between virtualenv and lein is not the implementation detail of whether it is a zipped file or whatever, but in how you use the

I think the important difference between virtualenv and lein is not the implementation detail of whether it is a zipped file or whatever, but in how you use them. If you run a python program with virtualenv who decides weather to use python2.5 python2.7 or python3? Is it the author of the program? No, typically it is the user of the program who decides by symlinking /usr/bin/python If you run a clojure program "lein run" who decides weather to use clojure1.3 clojure1.4 or clojure1.5. It is the author of the clojure program who decides by specifying in the project.clj file. What I am saying is, I really prefer what seems to be the idomatic way of running clojure programs. This is totally possible with any programming language, but other jvm languages seem want to emulate the /usr/bin/runtime strategy. For instance the idomatic way to run a groovy script is to point /usr/bin/groovy --> ~/groovy-2.0/bin/groovy and $>groovy myscript.groovy