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Creator here. You're totally right it's not a good way to learn the language in isolation. A little context: this is the first project I've built in any Lisp,

Creator here. You're totally right it's not a good way to learn the language in isolation. A little context: this is the first project I've built in any Lisp, so learning Clojure/ClojureScript from scratch is still very fresh in my mind. When I worked through the original Clojure Koans, I had a REPL open and made judicious use of online resources to figure out each answer. As an experienced programmer who was brand new to Lisp, treating the koans as a sort of 'open-book exam' was very effective for me. Perhaps explicitly suggesting that workflow on the home page would be a simple but worthwhile addition.

mbubb 13y ago
Really fun! Reminds me of "little Schemer"* in the sense that there are no 'instructions' so you are encouraged to try various things out. In my opinion this way of doing it is good. It works for me. * http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer
icefox 13y ago
It would be very nice if each koan had docs included underneath (maybe hidden by a hint link?) talking about what the koan was trying to teach you. If you can do every single one it isn't that much fun, but if you can't do every single one then you need to go off and learn something and it would be really good to help nudge the user along to where they can learn more. Alternatively to a help box having the displayed code provide links to the appropriate clojure docs would be another route.
spiralganglion 13y ago
For what it's worth, my non-programmer coworkers were able to deduce many of the answers just from context. The gradual difficulty ramp is quite good, only bumpy in a few places (higher order functions is a bit of a sudden jump for those who aren't well-versed in functional thinking). I'm a relatively seasoned programmer, who is gradually becoming familiar with Clojure/script, and really enjoyed these exercises. Definitely not a teaching tool, but a fantastic assessment of what parts of the language come easily, what parts I need to review, and excellent practice reading the language.

mbubb 13y ago

Really fun! Reminds me of "little Schemer"* in the sense that there are no 'instructions' so you are encouraged to try various things out. In my opinion this way of doing it is good. It works for me. * http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer

icefox 13y ago

It would be very nice if each koan had docs included underneath (maybe hidden by a hint link?) talking about what the koan was trying to teach you. If you can do every single one it isn't that much fun, but if you can't do every single one then you need to go off and learn something and it would be really good to help nudge the user along to where they can learn more. Alternatively to a help box having the displayed code provide links to the appropriate clojure docs would be another route.

spiralganglion 13y ago

For what it's worth, my non-programmer coworkers were able to deduce many of the answers just from context. The gradual difficulty ramp is quite good, only bumpy in a few places (higher order functions is a bit of a sudden jump for those who aren't well-versed in functional thinking). I'm a relatively seasoned programmer, who is gradually becoming familiar with Clojure/script, and really enjoyed these exercises. Definitely not a teaching tool, but a fantastic assessment of what parts of the language come easily, what parts I need to review, and excellent practice reading the language.