
Getting Started with Clojure Guides - fogus
http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/clojure/Getting_Started
======
andrewvc
EDIT: Clojure is easy to get up and running with! This was written before I
got some excellent feedback in the comments below. Apparently I've been
following an out-of-date Clojure tutorial.

I just got Halloway's book, and I have to say, getting started with Clojure
isn't as seamless as it could be. I mainly want to write web-apps with it, so
I thought I'd get going writing an app using compojure. Well, it turns out
that I to do that I need:

1\. Java 2\. Clojure 3\. Clojure-contrib 4\. Ant 5\. Maven 6\. Leiningen

And there's no equivalent of CPAN or gem to fetch all this for me, IMHO, a
huge pain in the ass, doubly so because a lot of this stuff involved mucking
around with env vars like JAVA_HOME and CLASS_PATH. Is there an easier way to
set this up than just downloading the individual packages? Something like WAMP
for Clojure? I'm not looking forward to going through this again.

By comparison, in ruby I could just: 1\. Download the ruby installer
(Windows)/ apt-get install ruby-full (Ubuntu Linux) 2. gem install sinatra

And you're done.

~~~
weavejester
It should be much simpler than that. Leiningen has a "lein self-install"
command that downloads all the basic dependencies. See here:
[http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/clojure/Getting_Started_wi...](http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/clojure/Getting_Started_with_Leiningen)

Once Leiningen is installed, dependencies are handled automatically. You can
use "lein new my-project" to create a new project skeleton, and then customize
the project.clj file to add in new dependencies. Most Clojure projects are now
up on clojars.org, which is one of the repositories included by default in
Leiningen.

~~~
andrewvc
You're right, I was acting on some mistaken premises, I'm up and running now,
thanks for the tip.

------
hello_moto
This might not be related to Clojure guides... but I'd like to know what you
guys think about various Clojure books out there... (Manning, Apress,
PragProg).

~~~
raju
I have three - "Programming Clojure" (PragProg), "The Joy of Clojure" (MEAP -
Manning) and "Clojure In Action" (MEAP - Manning). There is the Apress book
coming out soon, and I am yet to pick up the beta

Of those 3 the PragProg and "Clojure In Action" seem to be the ones that most
people are using to get up and running with Clojure. The PragProg is pre 1.0
(FYI).

Both the above mentioned books look good. But I am especially impressed with
the Joy Of Clojure by fogus (a HN'er) - From what I have read so far (which is
the first 4 chapters in the MEAP) - they are taking a different approach to
teaching Clojure. They are emphasizing the philosophy of Clojure - so they
attempt to explain the "why" as well as the "how". Having played with some
Clojure this definitely helps to bring somethings into perspective.

I would recommend picking up the PragProg book (if for no other reason than
it's the only complete Clojure book out there) and "The Joy of Clojure". I am
eagerly waiting out the Apress book to see how it is.

Hope that helped.

~~~
hello_moto
Thank you very much!

