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by extra__tofu 3241 days ago
I'm an EE who is getting more and more interested in software development and computation in general. I've been reading Paul Graham and Peter Norvig and decided to learn Scheme. Any thoughts on Scheme vs. Clojure for learning?
5 comments
eliben 3241 days ago
To a first order of approximation, for this task it doesn't matter. Both are good options. I do recommend reading SICP while at it; using Scheme for SICP is easier than using Clojure.

On the other hand, Clojure is more production-ready than most Schemes, in my experience -- this sentence being one of the reasons as the Scheme landscape is very fragmented, despite the standard(s). For example, in my own SICP journey (http://eli.thegreenplace.net/tag/sicp) I was using PLT Scheme, one of the most usable implementation back in the day. Unfortunately it forked off into a slightly different language - Racket - since then. So YMMV

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cle 3241 days ago
Clojure is definitely more practical, being much more widely used in production and running on the JVM (which provides access to a huge array of Java libs).

Scheme is simpler though, and probably more approachable for a beginner. The hosted nature of Clojure means you'll need a decent understanding of the underlying JVM to understand errors--the first time you get a stack trace you're going to seriously question your choice. Also Clojure's syntax is more complicated (but really, not at all complicated compared to Java, C#, Python, etc.).

You should be able to pick up Clojure pretty quickly if you're already familiar with Scheme, the programming style is pretty similar.

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twfarland 3241 days ago
Scheme is a smaller language and has legendary beginner books. Start with HTDP and then SICP.
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peatmoss 3241 days ago
Seconding HtDP. I have gotten lots of mileage from that one.
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davedx 3241 days ago
They are both LISP dialects, therefore worth learning. Clojure(Script) is nice because it has great interoperability with underlying platforms, so it's also a very practical and useful language for the real world. But if you started Scheme stick with that first - focus.
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pnathan 3241 days ago
Scheme is better. It's more powerful and far smaller.
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