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Yes, heavily. Clojure influenced(mostly because for Rich Hickey talks) many parts of the JS functional programming ecosystem. Many functions in lodash and other libraries(immutablejs etc...) are somewhat directly or indirectly influenced from ideas Clojure help make more mainstream. Even Java the language itself has been heavily influenced by Clojure.

So this ecosystems implement the best ideas from niche influential languages, you can use Clojure's "programming model" without leaving the productivity and practical benefits of a big ecosystem. This has been more prominent in JS since the language lends itself better to FP.




This reads to me as a rather superficial take on Clojure.

It's true that JavaScript - or any language, for that matter - can implement libraries that may have been inspired by a Clojure library. But specific libraries aren't what's being talked about here.

The characteristic of Clojure in question - which, IMO, JavaScript does not answer well - is the ability to easily create libraries and DSLs that feel like an extension of the language itself.

To poorly paraphrase a quote that I can't quite remember: Lisp isn't the best language for any problem in particular. What Lisp is the best language for is being a platform on top of which you can implement your own language, that is itself the best one for the problem you're trying to solve right now.

Or, to take a concrete example: In JavaScript, you get optional static typing from TypeScript, which is actually a whole new language that is transpiled to JavaScript. In Clojure, you get optional static typing from Typed Clojure, which is just a library.


By "experience of Clojure", I meant experience of Clojure.


"By 'X', I meant X" doesn't help to explain what you mean. Can you clarify?


The first X was in quotes, so it was a purely lexical reference to the words themselves, without referring to any conventional meaning that those words might have. The second X was unquoted and so by that I meant to convey the usual meaning in English.

Another way of saying it would have been: erm right but experience of Javascript is not experience of Clojure, regardless of any influence Clojure may have had on modern Javascript.


OK. But you didn't ask him to describe his Clojure experience, you just asked whether he was speaking from Clojure experience -- and he said that yes, he was. Asked and answered?


No, on the contrary, I understood his/her reply to be saying that he/she had not used Clojure, but that its influence on the Javascript ecosystem was such that a user of modern Javascript could consider themselves to have "experience of Clojure" in a sense.

We don't have to carry on debating it, but have another read of the reply in question -- I think you'll agree that it was in fact saying that they did not have any experience of Clojure; only of Clojure-influenced Javascript.




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