

FlightCaster (YC S09) open-sources Crane: Hadoop Clusters on EC2 - jaf12duke
http://measuringmeasures.blogspot.com/2009/12/flightcaster-open-sources-crane_03.html

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revorad
_For Hadoop systems, using Cloudera's distribution can be very helpful with
this, but existing Java libraries force Clojure developers to deal with the
Java world of static compilation, command-line JAR execution, and
configuration via XML. This serves as a major impediment to the kind of
interactive and simple experience we expect with Clojure systems._

What is the benefit of using Clojure (as opposed to another Lisp) if the
language's main USP, i.e. access to Java libraries, is turning out to be a
problem? This is not a rhetorical question.

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runevault
icey mostly answered your point, however the trick here is that without
wrapping in libraries like this, you're simply getting the same experience as
java to access the particular libs, which is still easier than accessing them
from another lisp such as sbcl.

Easier than everyone else does not default to "stupid easy" all the time, at
least not without work from people making wrapper libs like this.

~~~
revorad
OK, thanks for the explanation. I still wonder how good an idea it is to make
such wrapper libraries instead of writing pure Lisp libraries in the first
place, not in this particular case but as a general idea.

~~~
runevault
Certainly where it makes sense to invest the time writing pure clojure
libraries (or mostly clojure with optimized java in a few key areas if you're
running into spots you can't get as good a performance in pure clojure but
java will) is preferred, but at least this gives you the option of using the
non-fp styled libraries until such a time as someone writes them. Improved
bootstrapping at it's finest.

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callmeed
Although most of this post is over my head, it's nice to see smart folks open-
source stuff like this.

Out of curiosity, does YC have a say in what tools their companies open-source
or not?

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pg
No, not in this or any other such decision.

