Introduction

This workshop aims to get your brain and fingers accustomed to just enough of the Clojure programming language to start doing useful things with it.

In other words, "What could one do with just a little bit of Clojure?".

What is Clojure?

Clojure is an interactive functional programming language that can run on many platforms like the JVM, .NET CLR, Javascript (browsers, nodeJS, React Native), as native binaries via Graalvm, and even as shell scripts!

It is used by software teams worldwide to deliver high-value software systems at giant companies like Apple, Walmart, to "decacorns" like GoJek, Nubank, to a wide array of startups, and one-person businesses like Partsbox.com.

Its interactivity and dynamism foster a sense of playfulness that attracts all manner of creative makers---hobbyist as well as serious artists and musicians.

A small but vibrant global community is busy building amazing things with the language.

Intended usage

Support a 1-day guided workshop for programmers new to Clojure (not absolute programming beginners).
Also function as at-home learning material for said programmers.
The master branch is heavily commented, for at-home use.
A solutions branch will be available, as a companion to master. But don't peek at it in advance!
You may see a workshop-code branch. Ignore it. It is meant only for workshop use, and is subject to deletion/re-creation.
Incidentally, if you landed here while searching for Hirokuni Kim's "Clojure By Example", well, follow the link!

Contributions

If you find bugs or errors, please send a PR (but please don't change the course structure or pedagogy).

Workshop Goals

Acquire a "feel" of Clojure, for further self-study/exploration.
Learn how Clojurists usually think with Clojure to solve problems.
See how it's not so hard to do surprisingly powerful things with a mere handful of "primitive" functions, data structures, and ideas.
Get you started with a good development setup and workflow that will serve you well if (when) you continue to program with Clojure, as a hobby, or at work!

Workshop Anti-Goals

Try to explain Functional Programming theory or Clojure's innards. (Many free and paid tutorials and books do so very well.)
Try to fully cover Clojure primitives/features. (That's homework!)
Devolve into language wars, editor wars, syntax wars, type wars... (Life's too short, people.)
Focus too much on tooling or operational things. (At least not while there's fun to be had!)

Suggested learning mindset

Think of this as an exercise in "constrained creativity".
Ignore details, achieve much with as little know-how as possible.
Focus on what things do; not what they are, or why they are.
Inform your intuition for doing things, and then use that to dive deeper into all the juicy details at your own pace, later.

Take what is useful, discard the rest.

Setup Instructions

Just do the following one by one, and you should be fine.

Java

You need Java installed.

Run java -version in your terminal.
If Java is not installed, please download and install Java from here.
Any version should do, but prefer Java 8 or higher. We have not tested this project with Java 7.
Once you are done, java -version should show you a Java version.

VSCode + Calva

We support VSCode + Calva IDE in the classroom for this workshop. We suggest you use this setup, unless of course, you have already configured your favourite editor for Clojure development. We've listed alternate starter kits below (IntelliJ, Vim, Emacs, Atom), but please avoid bikeshedding editors. Just complete the workshop first!

Download and Install VSCode.
Open VSCode and complete the initialization process.
Open the "Extensions" Tab and search for "Calva", Install the "Calva: Clojure & ClojureScript Interactive Programming" extension.
Alternatively you can visit the Calva page to install it.

Once installed:

Clone the repository on your machine.
In VSCode Use File > Open Folder... and open the cloned folder.
Notice that Calva activates.
Open the Command Palette in VSCode using ⇧⌘P on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+P on other systems.
Type "Calva: Start Project REPL" and choose "Calva: Start a Project REPL and Connect (aka Jack-In)" from the list.
- Select deps.edn when prompted for Project type. We are using tools.deps for managing the project. You don't need to worry about it's details for this workshop.
- VSCode will create a new pane called 'output.calva-repl' and you will see clj꞉user꞉> prompt in that screen.
You have a working REPL now!
Keep the Paredit guide handy, editing code will require some understanding of paredit.

Your favourite editor:

You may find instructions for your favourite editor at one of these pages. But there are only so many choices. Ultimately, you must pick your poison and run with it:

Course Design Philosophy

Just some peoples' opinion. You need not be slave to it ;-)

Almost anyone can hope to do more with more. Up to a point, that is.

Far too often, we end up doing less with more; bogged down by the complexity and blinding glitter of too much choice, and overabundance.

Figuring out how to do more with less feeds our curiosity, and it often satisfies and empowers us deeply.

So, may you stay small and achieve important things.

Live long, and prosper. \\//_

Credits

clj-pune people, especially kapilreddy, and jaju for critique while making "pratham", the precursor to this project.
adityaathalye, jysandy, and kapilreddy for course design, code reviews, critique, commits, and being the core teaching staff at the first edition of this workshop at IN/Clojure 2018.
All the workshop participants, and the many Clojurists who generously donated their time to make it successful.
inclojure-org for being the umbrella under which this work happened.

Copyright and License

Distributed under the MIT license.

inclojure-org / clojure-by-example