Clojure – A Little Bit Further Along The Curve.
Ok I am now at the stage where everything seems simple. It is stage I always seem to go through when learning a new language. The new things are still new but understandable and the old things looks simple, not enough code has been written to find the warts. I admit it is a nice stage of learning a new language it gives the feeling that anything is possible in the language.
Obviously that feeling is wrong but it is nice to have. A warning sign for me would be if I did get that feeling about a language at some point.
So what have I noted about Clojure so far.
- I do slightly miss static typing.
- Clojure seem quite concise
- Interactivity is still great
- Interop with Java is quite easy
- Clojure as a language feels small
Yep I miss static typing, all my life I have been taught to check your units and static typing has always been the equivalent, in my mind, for programming. It is sometimes to move away from the comfort zone.
Clojure does feel like a small langauge as in the core is easy to fit inside you head. This contrasts well with C++ and Scala both of which feel like large languages. I am undecided on whether big or small is better. There are so many different view points meaning no simple answer is to be found. In an attempt to not get side tracked I don’t intend to start to investigate the literature on that topic.
Where from here in the learning process. Well I need to start producing more code. I am not sure I have broken the 500 line mark of my own code, I keep refactoring as I learn better ways so a simple line count is not possible. Unit testing frameworks are still an unknown and learning more about using emacs/slime more efficiently with Clojure is certainly needed.