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5th out of 15 books
—
13 voters
The Joy of Clojure
by
Michael Fogus (Goodreads Author),
Chris Houser
About the Book
If you've seen how dozens of lines of Java or Ruby can dissolve into just a few lines of Clojure, you'll know why the authors of this book call it a "joyful language." Clojure is a dialect of Lisp that runs on the JVM. It combines the nice features of a scripting language with the powerful features of a production environment—features like persistent data str...more
If you've seen how dozens of lines of Java or Ruby can dissolve into just a few lines of Clojure, you'll know why the authors of this book call it a "joyful language." Clojure is a dialect of Lisp that runs on the JVM. It combines the nice features of a scripting language with the powerful features of a production environment—features like persistent data str...more
Paperback, 328 pages
Published
March 28th 2011
by Manning Publishing
(first published November 28th 2010)
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In the realm of technical, programming-related, computer science-type books, The Joy of Clojure is a bit of an oddity. And this is a very good thing.
WHAT THE BOOK IS NOT: The Joy of Clojure is not a beginner's introduction to the language. The Joy of Clojure is not a glorified appendix of methods and syntax. The Joy of Clojure is not a "cookbook" or a "how-to" or an "FAQ". The Joy of Clojure is not an explanation on how to shoe-horn your Java code into (some (graceful [parenthetical syntax:]))....more
WHAT THE BOOK IS NOT: The Joy of Clojure is not a beginner's introduction to the language. The Joy of Clojure is not a glorified appendix of methods and syntax. The Joy of Clojure is not a "cookbook" or a "how-to" or an "FAQ". The Joy of Clojure is not an explanation on how to shoe-horn your Java code into (some (graceful [parenthetical syntax:]))....more
This book is a good primer on the advanced uses of Clojure: macros, threading, prototypes, memoization, etc.
This isn't just a regurg of the Clojure API; it was well written, funny and challenging. The authors really know their stuff.
I've ordered "Practical Clojure" and "Programming Clojure" to back fill some of the less advanced stuff.
This isn't just a regurg of the Clojure API; it was well written, funny and challenging. The authors really know their stuff.
I've ordered "Practical Clojure" and "Programming Clojure" to back fill some of the less advanced stuff.
Very good book on 'advanced' Clojure programming, discussing questions of clojurish programs design, optimizations, correct and optimal use of data structures.
I highly recommend this book for all, who already studied some Clojure programming (because this book premise, that you have Clojure experience) and wants to make your Clojure skills much better
I highly recommend this book for all, who already studied some Clojure programming (because this book premise, that you have Clojure experience) and wants to make your Clojure skills much better
I have to admit that the title is more clever than I like. I've learned in the past few years that "clever" things are the ones I wind up regretting, while "elegant" ones stand the test of time. That said, it's pretty much what the title implies: an exploration of how you can do this thing (program in Clojure, in this case) in ways that will maximize your enjoyment of it.
It's not aimed at the novice programmer, but at someone who's already familiar with Java programming and its underlying conce...more
It's not aimed at the novice programmer, but at someone who's already familiar with Java programming and its underlying conce...more
Apr 16, 2013
Kyle The Hacker
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
experience hackers looking to learn Clojure
The Joy of Clojure is an excellent resource for those who already know how to program. It jumps right in to the language, and explains a lot of the whys. I did struggle with a few parts as I lack much Java experience, and there is a bit of Java interop involved. (I guess it's expected anymore that you have Java experience. Consider me one of the lucky ones.)
I used emacs, leiningen and nrepl.el to work through the code in the book, and it worked pretty well.
I'd say this was probably my favourite...more
I used emacs, leiningen and nrepl.el to work through the code in the book, and it worked pretty well.
I'd say this was probably my favourite...more
This book is lovely. As a second book about Clojure it propels you from basic understanding through to deep understanding. It doesn't exhaustively cover the library for Clojure but it covers the thought process behind the language and definitely exhorts a better style of development. The information flow doesn't let up for all the chapters and as such you feel like you've learned an immense amount aas you move through the book. Having said that the conclusion is pretty much, we've stopped writin...more
One of the best language-specific programming books I've read in quite a while. Throws the Clojure-beginner into the deep end a bit (I needed to lookup quite a few functions to understand the examples at first), but goes well beyond a trivial introduction to the language's syntax and standard library. Explains the hows and whys of Clojure idioms in a which clearly communicates what makes the language different. The section on when to use different reference types is worth the price of admission...more
I'm giving it five stars because this is the kind of books I like seeing. I don't want a catalog of syntax and features. The problem with that, specially when you arrive at a programming language that is vastly different than your own, is that you end writing programs in one programming language like if it was another. You could write Ruby like if it was Java and you'd be missing out all the wonderful bits of Ruby.
When it comes to Lisp and Clojure in particularly, there are many things that are...more
When it comes to Lisp and Clojure in particularly, there are many things that are...more
Very good book. This review is for the final edit of the book, not the MEAP version I was original reading. I've just finished and I find that this book covers A LOT more detail on Clojure than say, Clojure In Action. Reading the functional programming chapter (Chapter 7) has enlightened me to the :pre and :post condition checks that can be defined on functions. Clojure In Action may have mentioned these as well, I can't recall, but the point is that The Joy of Clojure caused me to remember them...more
First things first, "The Joy of Clojure" really lives up to its name! Every page oozes with the excitement @fogus and @chrishouser have for the language and its community. This is exactly what makes this book such an enjoyable read, it's hard not to get drawn into the beauty of Clojure when you have two convinced developers sharing their passion with you.
That said JoC may not be a good first book to read for a Clojure newbie. It's deep like the language itself and it will take you a while to fu...more
That said JoC may not be a good first book to read for a Clojure newbie. It's deep like the language itself and it will take you a while to fu...more
2 likes · like · see review
Good book. Learned some things, but just a few.
Most of clojure, I learned online, but this book did have some things I'm really glad I learned; things I didn't get from reading and playing.
My big beef is that the book is ancient (in computer years). A second edition is coming out soon, and maybe that will fix it, but the book is based off clojure 1.2, and 1.5 is out now. So a lot of it felt rather outdated.
Most of clojure, I learned online, but this book did have some things I'm really glad I learned; things I didn't get from reading and playing.
My big beef is that the book is ancient (in computer years). A second edition is coming out soon, and maybe that will fix it, but the book is based off clojure 1.2, and 1.5 is out now. So a lot of it felt rather outdated.
Good book for learning clojure.
A different perspective on technical programming language books. Recommended for adventurous and not for beginners.
Being written in a different style is what makes its strengths and weaknesses.
It wont treat you like an idiot, and it will make you work and understand.
I liked it, and will surely revisit it if I grow larger into the language.
A different perspective on technical programming language books. Recommended for adventurous and not for beginners.
Being written in a different style is what makes its strengths and weaknesses.
It wont treat you like an idiot, and it will make you work and understand.
I liked it, and will surely revisit it if I grow larger into the language.
I couldn't get past my bias that nearly everything in the book could be done better by scala. Also, the chapter on concurrency, which was the most challenging chapter, was not as clear as it should have been, and required several readings for me to understand it, and how all of the different types of references you use for concurrency fit together in clojure.
This book will not make you a master of the Clojure API. It will not drone on about minute details of the language's JVM implementation. Its authors do a brilliant job, however, of detailing the power and personality of Clojure and its opinionated backing philosophy. They show exactly why Clojure, its ecosystem, and its community are continually thriving nowadays — what makes the language so distinctive among modern systems and even among other Lisps.
This book is by no means a quick read — I end...more
This book is by no means a quick read — I end...more
Excellent book about advanced Clojure usage. The vast number of covered topics and what's more important, how deep they are covered, makes "The Joy of Clojure" the best currently existing book for a skillful Clojure programmer.
Nice foundational review of Clojure that doesn't hold your hand (in a good way). For a more practical overview of the current state of the language, libraries and frameworks, read O'Reilly's Clojure Programming.
It does try to teach idiomatic clojure.
Some examples are rather difficult.
Some examples are rather difficult.
If only more programming books took the approach of Joy of Clojure.
This is a dense book, in a good way. It didn't seem like any page was wasted, and the authors were never afraid to dive into real code and make things work. The organization of the book shows that the authors really have their act together and had lots of experience teaching the language before they wrote the book. As far as meaty, advanced Clojure literature goes, I'll say this is the best book currently out there. In fact, I might go so far as to say that this is one of the best hands-on progr...more
Loved it as far as I read
I like Clojure Programming by O'Reilly better.
Fantastic overview of Clojure that gets down into the nitty-gritty of why the language is structured the way it is. Provides great example code, too. Not exactly a reference, not exactly a tutorial, it lies somewhere between the two. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to explore Lisp (what?) in a Java environment (why?).
Narration jumps between novice and expert levels (annoying to read). Didn't make me want to learn clojure. Otherwise, it was ok.
Very good book for learning Clojure.
Jun 17, 2013
Andrew Shulayev
marked it as to-read
Jun 16, 2013
Alexander Petrov
marked it as to-read
Jun 12, 2013
Richard W.
marked it as to-read
Jun 11, 2013
Tumas
marked it as to-read
Jun 11, 2013
Kevin Webster
is currently reading it
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“The apprentice avoids all use of Java classes. The journeyman embraces Java classes. The master knows which classes to embrace and which to avoid.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
May 17, 2011 12:57pm
Stick with it E...more
May 17, 2011 05:56pm
It hard to deny that Clojure is a huge change from what you might be used to. I'm probably biased (just a tiny bit), but I think it's worth the...more
May 19, 2011 04:57am