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I've decided to look into Clojure (inspired by this book). After a bit of research I've learned that I may be able to take advantage of my .Net experience by using ClojureCLR rather than needing to learn the various Java libraries. However, I have found very little documentation on the CLR version of Clojure (even the official website seems to push you to the JVM implementation's documentation).

Does anyone know where some decent tutorials, books, articles or documentation can be found? If there really are none, is it safe to assume that I can learn via the JVM implementation for most of what I need to know (i.e. there is little difference between the two implementations, so the knowledge will be fairly transferable)?

If need-be I am willing to learn the JVM version and the Java libraries (would be good to expand... which is why I'm looking into a functional/lisp language in the first place).

Jason Down
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2 Answers2

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For now you will likely find a smoother learning experience for Clojure using the JVM. There are a some really exciting new ideas in Clojure and regardless of the platform you choose these will be a lot of fun to learn, though you may find it easier to concentrate on what you are trying to learn if you are on the platform with better tooling and a bigger community.

The part of the language that makes Clojure, Clojureish will of course be exactly the same, and once you're comfortable with them then the CLR side of thing will likely be more accessible. I get the impression that the general consensus is that once Clojure is implemented in Clojure the CLR version will track much more closely to the JVM development.

Clojure has attracted a huge following* of enthusiasts with no Java or .NET experience at all (those coming from Lisp) so I don't think that the differences between .NET vs JVM are a common stumbling block.

*Arthur's opinion :)

Jason Down
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Arthur Ulfeldt
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  • Ok thanks. I agree that Clojure seems to be a fast growing community. This is part of the reason I chose it as the next language to take a whirl at. I'll go with the JVM implementation and we'll see how the CLR version comes along a little further down the road. – Jason Down Jul 13 '11 at 12:13
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There is a blog devoted to the Clr version of Clojure that may interest you here. I believe the contributors are both the original Clojure creator (Rich Hickey) and the CLR port creator (David Miller).

Shimmy Hacked
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