I dropped by the Java Users’ Group meeting last week since Rich Hickey was there to talk about Clojure.
I expected a bit of carping from the Java guys, and at first they were all “efficiency this” and “security that.” But by mid-way through the talk I think they were getting it. A few even got excited about macros.
If I didn’t make it clear in my first post about Clojure, I like this language. Here’s some more reasons why:
- All binding constructs — let, defn, and the like — perform destructuring.
- Universal data structures — vector, list, map, set.
- Built-in java.util.regex support.
- Sixty squintillion Java libraries.
- A small but growing number of Clojure libraries, some written by yours truly.
- You can generate Java .class files that run Clojure code.
- Lightning-fast bug fixes from the author.