Ep 039: Why Use Clojure Over Another Functional Language?

Functional Design in Clojure

Each week, we answer a different question about Clojure and functional programming.

If you have a question you'd like us to discuss, tweet @clojuredesign, send an email to [email protected], or join the #clojuredesign-podcast channel on the Clojurians Slack.

This week, the question is: "Why use Clojure over another functional language?". We examine the different categories of functional programming languages and distill out what differentiates Clojure and why we prefer it.

Selected quotes:

• "Running just one function when developing is not only allowed in Clojure, it's encouraged and celebrated."
• "You don't have to make the whole world (application) agree. You can work on just a part of it and then bring it back into the rest of the world when you want it to agree."
• "I would like some XML in my cake."
• "Oh, you were a hipster Scala user."
• "When I pull in code off clojars, it's going to use the Clojure way, because there is a Clojure way."
• "If you can make all your abstractions with a simpler set of semantics, wouldn't that be better than a broader set?"
• "Multi-paradigm languages are inherently more complex. You really end up in the 'good parts' kind of problem. Scala, The Good Parts. Javascript, The Good Parts."
• "Code is about communicating with two things. The computer and the other developers. The computer can handle esoteric language features, but other developers will have a harder time with them."

Related episodes:

• 002: Tic-Tac-Toe, State in a Row
• 014: Fiddle with the REPL