> What is it about the classpath in particular that people find > difficult? Is it that different from things like PYTHONPATH or > RUBYLIB? The main differences I can see are:
This is speculation but I suspect it may have to do with the practicality of it. If you're jumping into python/ruby, things are just "there". The libraries are usually natively packages for your OS and magically available once you install it, or else people presumably use setup.py to install locally so site-packages and they're, again, just magically available. Normally you don't touch PYTHONPATH other than perhaps adding your $(pwd) to it for the project. The same kind of operating system infrastructure doesn't really exist for Java and the threshold for getting stuff done in a sensible way (which does not include dragging in random .jar:s in your version control system) is way higher if you're coming from the *nix/scripting world. Note that I'm not saying the python/ruby way is better (there are several reasons to prefer the maven way); I'm just saying that the out-of-the-box experience if you're trying to learn a new language and need some library X is likely to be a lot less painful for the new user with Python/Ruby than with Clojure (probably a single command to install the library once you've located it in the packaging system of your choice - a packaging system the user knows and is comfortable with). Now, for Windows it's a whole other matter. I can see the IDE issues, but presumably the python/ruby situation is not very good there unless you're heavily into cygwin or something. -- / Peter Schuller -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
