Book Image

Clojure for Java Developers

Book Image

Clojure for Java Developers

Overview of this book

We have reached a point where machines are not getting much faster, software projects need to be delivered quickly, and high quality in software is more demanding as ever. We need to explore new ways of writing software that helps achieve those goals. Clojure offers a new possibility of writing high quality, multi-core software faster than ever, without having to leave your current platform. Clojure for Java developers aims at unleashing the true potential of the Clojure language to use it in your projects. The book begins with the installation and setup of the Clojure environment before moving on to explore the language in-depth. Get acquainted with its various features such as functional programming, concurrency, etc. with the help of example projects. Additionally, you will also, learn how the tooling works, and how it interacts with the Java environment. By the end of this book, you will have a firm grip on Clojure and its features, and use them effectively to write more robust programs.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
Clojure for Java Developers
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Lisp's foundational ideas


Lisp is a very different beast from what you used to know. According to Paul Graham, there are nine ideas that make Lisp different (these ideas have existed since the late 1950s), and they are:

  1. Conditionals (remember, we are talking 1950s–1960s)

  2. Functions as first-class citizens

  3. Recursion

  4. Dynamic typing

  5. Garbage collection

  6. Programs as sequences of expressions

  7. The symbol type

  8. Lisp's syntax

  9. The whole language is there all the time: at compilation, runtime—always!

Note

If you can, read Paul Graham's essay Revenge of the Nerds (http://www.paulgraham.com/icad.html), where he talks about Lisp, what makes it different, and why the language is important.

These ideas have thrived even after the Lisp age; most of them are common nowadays (can you imagine a language without conditionals?). But the last couple of ideas are what makes us Lisp lovers love the syntax (we will fully understand what they mean through this chapter).

Common languages are trying to achieve the very same things now...