On Jul 8, 2011, at 6:23 PM, Ken Wesson wrote: > If you download and install Eclipse or NetBeans they will install a > JDK by default, and if you then use their internal plugin browsers to > find and install CCW resp. Enclojure, they will install Clojure 1.2.0 > (last time I checked) for you and set up classpaths. You can be up and > running at a REPL in no time. Of course, adding a third-party library > isn't as simple as "install it -> restart REPL", because "add it to > project dependencies in the IDE" comes in between.
I agree that Eclipse/CCW provides a great path for newbies (modulo some Eclipse interface weirdness) up to the point of project management, but then it can be messier and more opaque to the non-Java-savvy than you imply here, and this can trip you up even if you're only trying to do pretty simple things. Eclipse's idea of what's where etc. is confusing and often invisible or hidden in the interface, etc., and this produced a lot of frustration in my class. I think I said recently that several setups are about 95% the way to being newbie-friendly, and while the missing 5% for emacs/lein is mostly in installation/configuration the missing 5% for Eclipse is in project management. People have posted recipes for using lein and Eclipse/CCW together, but at least as far as I've tried them none is yet really satisfying -- a few too many steps doing things that are opaque and weird on the Eclipse side. > I'm not sure how much that could be improved within the Java > ecosystem. A lein frontend with a concept of "current project" that > lets you just do "leinfrontend install foreign-dependency" and have > the thing add the dependency to the project.clj and rerun lein deps > under the hood, perhaps...or a feature in Enclojure or CCW that can do > likewise, using the automatic dependency finding stuff that now seems > to exist in the lein/maven world and possibly beyond to allow you to > browse libraries and pick ones to install from within the IDE, then > install the chosen libraries and their dependencies and add them to > the active project's classpath in one go. I personally think that lein is clear enough not to need such a front-end. If there were a better way of working with lein+Eclipse/CCW, or a better way of installing/configuring a lein+emacs+slime setup, then I don't think it'd be a terrible barrier for newbies to say that project dependencies are managed by editing project.clj. -Lee -- 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
