I tried using Clojure to build my personal website. I love it, and can't wait to see where it goes next. However, the documentation problem is pretty real. Clojure libraries get updated and deprecated really quickly (because the language is so new) and tutorials on the web quickly get out of date. I had a lot of experiences where I would pick up a new library or framework because it was in a tutorial, only to find out that:
-It had been abandoned by its creator in favor of a newer framework.
-The functions used in the tutorial had been deprecated.
These are definitely just growing pains and not something intrinsically bad about Clojure. However, I hope that the next year or two bring more stability and more ease of learning.
One thing that I wish was better tutorialized is LightTable. I understand Chris Granger is a one man IDE developer and that LT is still in development. However, if we could get more tutorials from users like the one that was posted earlier today, that would be fantastic.
Eventually I ran into pedestal.io. Those guys have a great framework. It covers front and back end, and involves Functional Reactive Programming, something I'd never seen before. They have an excellent tutorial that they update in sync with the framework. It's a bit overkill for my personal (mostly static) website, but after taking the time to learn it I feel like I came away with a real new skill.
One last thing that struck me about the Clojure community is how many workhorses there are. Guys like cemerick, technomancy and Chris Granger (the guy behind LightTable) have been working fast to build TONS of stuff, and a lot of it works really well. In particular, Leiningen is awesome and I imagine (I've never not used it) that it makes the process of getting started that much easier.
It's a bit overkill for my personal (mostly static) website
Yeah, while you can use pedestal-services to create normal websites, it seems Luminus (or one of the others) would be better suited. Pedestal really shines when you build single page applications.
-It had been abandoned by its creator in favor of a newer framework.
-The functions used in the tutorial had been deprecated.
These are definitely just growing pains and not something intrinsically bad about Clojure. However, I hope that the next year or two bring more stability and more ease of learning.
One thing that I wish was better tutorialized is LightTable. I understand Chris Granger is a one man IDE developer and that LT is still in development. However, if we could get more tutorials from users like the one that was posted earlier today, that would be fantastic.
Eventually I ran into pedestal.io. Those guys have a great framework. It covers front and back end, and involves Functional Reactive Programming, something I'd never seen before. They have an excellent tutorial that they update in sync with the framework. It's a bit overkill for my personal (mostly static) website, but after taking the time to learn it I feel like I came away with a real new skill.
One last thing that struck me about the Clojure community is how many workhorses there are. Guys like cemerick, technomancy and Chris Granger (the guy behind LightTable) have been working fast to build TONS of stuff, and a lot of it works really well. In particular, Leiningen is awesome and I imagine (I've never not used it) that it makes the process of getting started that much easier.