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Product Description
Product Description
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 structures and clean multithreading that you'll need for industrial-strength application development.
The Joy of Clojure goes beyond just syntax to show you how to write fluent and idiomatic Clojure code. You'll learn a functional approach to programming and will master Lisp techniques that make Clojure so elegant and efficient. The book gives you easy access to hard soft ware areas like concurrency, interoperability, and performance. And it shows you how great it can be to think about problems the Clojure way.
Purchase includes free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBooks downloadable at manning.com.
What's Inside- The what and why of Clojure
- How to work with macros
- How to do elegant application design
- Functional programming idioms
Written for programmers coming to Clojure from another programming background—no prior experience with Clojure or Lisp is required.
About the Author
Michael Fogus is software developer with experience in distributed simulation, machine vision, and expert systems construction. He's actively involved in the Clojure and Scala communities.
Chris Houser is a primary contributor to Clojure and has implemented several features for the language.
Inside This Book
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
First and foremost, buy this book should you feel a need to learn the "why" of the Clojure language (btw, there're other books from Manning about the "how" and "where").
"The Joy of Clojure" has been on my shelf for almost a year (I believe I could read its drafts a couple of months back when it was in the Manning Early Access Program). I knew the authors - Michael Fogus and Chris Houser - from the Clojure developer mailing list and twitter, and since they used to offer inspiring tips I was quite certain what I might've expected from their book. And I have not been mistaken!
I have already read "Practical Clojure" by Luke VanderHart, Stuart Sierra (Apress, June 2010) and "Programming Clojure" by Stuart Halloway (The Pragmatic Programmers, May 2009). I remember when I wrote "lots of how but not much where and why" about the former. With "The Joy of Clojure" I've certainly been given the "why" (there's the book "Clojure in Action" from Manning which they say should supply the "where" - I can't wait to give it a read!).
I'm an almost exclusively Java, object-oriented professional and functional programming paradigm had never been of my interest. Not in the slightest. It's just with the advent of Clojure when my interest sparkled. And the days of a kind of detoxification from object-orientation begun.
I'm far from understanding functional programming, but I feel enlightened after having read the book. The book offers a variety of topics ranging from Clojure philosophy, functional programming foundations to Java.next with mutation (without mutation as I knew from Java) so when I finally reached the last Chapter 13. "Clojure changes the way you think" I had no reason to think otherwise.
There are no mundane, never-ending chapters about the basics of Clojure, its syntax and even a subset of what could be called - the language reference. It's not to say there's no introduction to the language or functional programming. Quite the opposite, but they don't stand out and are woven so gently that it's hardly to be noticed and thus become bored from.
"This isn't intended as a first book on programming, and it may not be an ideal first book on Clojure either" as says the Foreword. I fully concur with that and I don't recommend it as the very first book about Clojure, neither.
"A picture is worth a thousand words" has its place here as the pictures in the book greatly support understanding of the outlined concepts.
I don't think it's a book for a single go as not only did the content touch the design decisions of Clojure, but also the functional programming in general which ultimately made the book very useful even outside Clojure's realm. The book's reading was quite a tremendous mental undertaking for me. I've been using Java for about 15 years with no functional programming ever (besides simple HelloWorld-like applications), and again proved myself to spend more time to grasp the merits of functional programming with Clojure.
The book's one of the very few books which I'm so proud to have read. I wish you to find some spare cycles to have the pleasure to read it as well. It'll surely be the time well spent.
"The Joy of Clojure" has been on my shelf for almost a year (I believe I could read its drafts a couple of months back when it was in the Manning Early Access Program). I knew the authors - Michael Fogus and Chris Houser - from the Clojure developer mailing list and twitter, and since they used to offer inspiring tips I was quite certain what I might've expected from their book. And I have not been mistaken!
I have already read "Practical Clojure" by Luke VanderHart, Stuart Sierra (Apress, June 2010) and "Programming Clojure" by Stuart Halloway (The Pragmatic Programmers, May 2009). I remember when I wrote "lots of how but not much where and why" about the former. With "The Joy of Clojure" I've certainly been given the "why" (there's the book "Clojure in Action" from Manning which they say should supply the "where" - I can't wait to give it a read!).
I'm an almost exclusively Java, object-oriented professional and functional programming paradigm had never been of my interest. Not in the slightest. It's just with the advent of Clojure when my interest sparkled. And the days of a kind of detoxification from object-orientation begun.
I'm far from understanding functional programming, but I feel enlightened after having read the book. The book offers a variety of topics ranging from Clojure philosophy, functional programming foundations to Java.next with mutation (without mutation as I knew from Java) so when I finally reached the last Chapter 13. "Clojure changes the way you think" I had no reason to think otherwise.
There are no mundane, never-ending chapters about the basics of Clojure, its syntax and even a subset of what could be called - the language reference. It's not to say there's no introduction to the language or functional programming. Quite the opposite, but they don't stand out and are woven so gently that it's hardly to be noticed and thus become bored from.
"This isn't intended as a first book on programming, and it may not be an ideal first book on Clojure either" as says the Foreword. I fully concur with that and I don't recommend it as the very first book about Clojure, neither.
"A picture is worth a thousand words" has its place here as the pictures in the book greatly support understanding of the outlined concepts.
I don't think it's a book for a single go as not only did the content touch the design decisions of Clojure, but also the functional programming in general which ultimately made the book very useful even outside Clojure's realm. The book's reading was quite a tremendous mental undertaking for me. I've been using Java for about 15 years with no functional programming ever (besides simple HelloWorld-like applications), and again proved myself to spend more time to grasp the merits of functional programming with Clojure.
The book's one of the very few books which I'm so proud to have read. I wish you to find some spare cycles to have the pleasure to read it as well. It'll surely be the time well spent.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
18 reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
The best Clojure book
5 April 2011
Format:Paperback
As of right now, there are 3 Clojure books available in full (Programming Clojure, Practical Clojure, and this one), and one on the way (Clojure in Action). I can't speak to Clojure In Action, but I've read the first 3, and this is definitely the best one.
1) It covers Clojure 1.2, which is the current version, and has some important differences from 1.0 and 1.1. The new features are pretty cool, but sometimes their purpose is a bit obscure when looking through the documentation.
2) It's so darn specific, while at the same time being very concise. Common sticking points, like the behavior of unquote splicing, are gone over with non-trivial but easily understandable examples. Structural concerns like refs vs agents vs futures vs promises are discussed with good explanations for when you should use each.
3) It explains why things are cool - for instance the explanation of "state" and "identity" in functional programming is one of the best I've seen. If only there was a section on monads, this book would be downright canonical.
Basically, if you're planning on writing Clojure, or you want to see if the language jibes for you, you should get this book.
1) It covers Clojure 1.2, which is the current version, and has some important differences from 1.0 and 1.1. The new features are pretty cool, but sometimes their purpose is a bit obscure when looking through the documentation.
2) It's so darn specific, while at the same time being very concise. Common sticking points, like the behavior of unquote splicing, are gone over with non-trivial but easily understandable examples. Structural concerns like refs vs agents vs futures vs promises are discussed with good explanations for when you should use each.
3) It explains why things are cool - for instance the explanation of "state" and "identity" in functional programming is one of the best I've seen. If only there was a section on monads, this book would be downright canonical.
Basically, if you're planning on writing Clojure, or you want to see if the language jibes for you, you should get this book.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
An authoritative book by experienced Clojure coders
10 May 2011
Format:Paperback
Clojure is a language that makes many unique language design decisions. In order to appreciate the thinking behind these decisions, you will need to get good understanding of the Clojure philosophy. Chris and Fogus understand this philosophy like the back of their hands and reading "The Joy of Clojure" is possibly the fastest way to get up to speed with this exciting and powerful new Lisp dialect.
This book covers all the basics you need to know to get started with Clojure: It begins with a thorough explanation of the Clojure syntax and explains how to find your way around "functional programming", a key concept you'll need to be comfortable with to use Clojure effectively. These concepts are all explained with clear examples and with every new command and concept the authors also cover "big picture" topics that help the reader understand the importance of each item and help cement them into the reader's memory.
The second half of the book focuses on the pragmatic and advanced topics of the language. In terms of pragmatic topics, you will find detailed descriptions on how to interact with Java (very easy in Clojure) and use this to build a UI app. The authors also cover optimization and the static typing abilities of Clojure in great detail.
Another advance topic that "Joy of Clojure" has extensive coverage of is Clojure's insanely powerful multithreaded programming features. Here, you will learn why Clojure's solution to the "multithreaded programming dilemma" might be the best way to write bug-free code that can make full use of a multicore processor. The authors do a great job explaining the "whys" and "hows" of multithreaded programming and tell you everything you need to know to get the performance want out of your processor's cores.
Chris and Fogus live and breathe Clojure code and are part of the core Clojure community. What you're paying for when you buy this book is an introduction to the language from people who really understand what's important and what it takes to write efficient and idiomatic Clojure code. If you're interested in learning Clojure, I suggest you first look at the great videos on youtube from Rich Hickey, the language's creator. After that, I recommend you pick up "Joy of Clojure" and you'll be a fully capable Clojure developer in no time.
(Disclosure: Fogus reviewed a book I wrote last year called "Land of Lisp".)
This book covers all the basics you need to know to get started with Clojure: It begins with a thorough explanation of the Clojure syntax and explains how to find your way around "functional programming", a key concept you'll need to be comfortable with to use Clojure effectively. These concepts are all explained with clear examples and with every new command and concept the authors also cover "big picture" topics that help the reader understand the importance of each item and help cement them into the reader's memory.
The second half of the book focuses on the pragmatic and advanced topics of the language. In terms of pragmatic topics, you will find detailed descriptions on how to interact with Java (very easy in Clojure) and use this to build a UI app. The authors also cover optimization and the static typing abilities of Clojure in great detail.
Another advance topic that "Joy of Clojure" has extensive coverage of is Clojure's insanely powerful multithreaded programming features. Here, you will learn why Clojure's solution to the "multithreaded programming dilemma" might be the best way to write bug-free code that can make full use of a multicore processor. The authors do a great job explaining the "whys" and "hows" of multithreaded programming and tell you everything you need to know to get the performance want out of your processor's cores.
Chris and Fogus live and breathe Clojure code and are part of the core Clojure community. What you're paying for when you buy this book is an introduction to the language from people who really understand what's important and what it takes to write efficient and idiomatic Clojure code. If you're interested in learning Clojure, I suggest you first look at the great videos on youtube from Rich Hickey, the language's creator. After that, I recommend you pick up "Joy of Clojure" and you'll be a fully capable Clojure developer in no time.
(Disclosure: Fogus reviewed a book I wrote last year called "Land of Lisp".)
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful
true to its title: a joy to read
30 Mar 2011
Format:Paperback
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])). The Joy of Clojure is not a dry or sterile technical manual.
WHAT THE BOOK IS: The Joy of Clojure is as much a philosophical text as it is a survey of the language. The Joy of Clojure embraces the language's own flexible nature and describes itself in that way. The Joy of Clojure has a sense of humor. The Joy of Clojure expects a little work from you (but is willing to lend a hand along the way). The Joy of Clojure respects the baggage that you bring from your other programming languages, but expects you to check those bags at the door. The Joy of Clojure wants to make you a better programmer, not a Clojure programmer.
I would absolutely recommend this to anyone I know that had an interest in Clojure and/or functional programming.
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])). The Joy of Clojure is not a dry or sterile technical manual.
WHAT THE BOOK IS: The Joy of Clojure is as much a philosophical text as it is a survey of the language. The Joy of Clojure embraces the language's own flexible nature and describes itself in that way. The Joy of Clojure has a sense of humor. The Joy of Clojure expects a little work from you (but is willing to lend a hand along the way). The Joy of Clojure respects the baggage that you bring from your other programming languages, but expects you to check those bags at the door. The Joy of Clojure wants to make you a better programmer, not a Clojure programmer.
I would absolutely recommend this to anyone I know that had an interest in Clojure and/or functional programming.
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