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by random_coder 4667 days ago
How do you suggest that one should get past the initial hardships in learning clojure, assuming one is willing to put the needed effort? I've always wanted to learn a lisp and clojure seemed good, but couldn't find a good tutorial for lisp beginners.
6 comments
jared314 4667 days ago
The only advice that has helped me learn Clojure was: do not travel the road alone. Coming from a strong OO background, getting started posts/videos, REPL tutorials, and books only helped me to the point of reading and running Clojure. I agree with dizzystar that the documentation needs serious work, because I find myself reading the source for insight into how I should use things, or structure codebases. I think highly of Clojure, but don't expect it to be easy. Keep tabs with http://clojure.org/cheatsheet and http://clojuredocs.org open at all times, a REPL available at all times, and either use emacs/*nix or accept being in the suburbs.
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dizzystar 4667 days ago
I wish I had an answer, but I wasn't a Lisp beginner when I started with Clojure.

I'd definitely suggest using Linux, installing Clojure + Leiningen2, and getting familiar with the REPL. Also, getting Clojure Programming by Chad Emerick, et.al, is a solid first step to at least getting some things started.

Learning Clojure is like any other language: if you want to really dive in, you have to think of a project to get started in and take it step-by-step. I have not written algorithms or done scripting with Clojure, so I don't know how that stuff would work out. I feel there are better languages for that kind of stuff.

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john2x 4667 days ago
The "Clojure Programming"[1] book is good. Also "The Joy of Clojure"[2], to ease you into the philosophy/mindset of Clojure.

There's also http://www.braveclojure.com which is still a work in progress but it's good for diving in.

[1]: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920013754.do [2]: http://joyofclojure.com

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taylodl 4666 days ago
The Clojure koans are a good place to start - https://github.com/functional-koans/clojure-koans
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puredanger 4666 days ago
I think this has a great set of links: http://www.quora.com/Clojure/What-are-the-best-resources-for...
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sinemetu11 4666 days ago
The koans would be a good starting point: https://github.com/functional-koans/clojure-koans
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