> I disagree. This is a subject of religious debates that I don't want to get > into in detail, but FWIW this educator thinks that Lisp is a >perfectly > defensible first language and that Clojure can serve the purpose quite well > as long as installation and tooling doesn't make it ?unnecessarily difficult > to write and run code.
And this is the crux of the issue. It's the installation and tooling that's killing Clojure, ATM. Okay, killing is a strong word..but perhaps killing it for the newbies. Let's say I want to install some OpenGL libs for Python...I go and install Python. On Windows this is a simple .exe installer. This puts python into a location on my drive that makes sense (c:\Python27), and in there I see (c:\Python27\python.exe). If I run that program, HEY!, I get a REPL. Now I want to install opengl...so I find pygame...download the .exe, and run it. The installer finds my Python directory, and after install I just have to re-load my REPL. Now compare that to Clojure. I know Clojure does what it does for a reason, but let's be honest. First I have to download the JDK (and I have to know what that is), then I have to download something like lein, and add it to my command path. From there I have to figure out what on earth a project.clj file is, and what the contents mean. Then I can do lein deps, and then lein repl. Yay! I have a repl. Now I want to install OpenGL. That involves some interesting magic with clojars, lein and other such tools. As a quick compare... Python: python->pygame Clojure: JDK->lein->clojure->penumbra So over all yes, I think Clojure is just fine as a "first language", but it's horrible as a "first installed language". Timothy -- 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
