

Joy of Clojure – In the Books - mattyb
http://blog.fogus.me/2010/08/05/joy-of-clojure-in-the-books/

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joshuaeckroth
I was commenting to my wife the other day that while JoC does not seem to be
written for complete beginners, that fact is actually a very good thing. There
is a lot of Beginning Clojure / Beginning Lisp / etc. material out there. What
I really wanted was a book for those who have already seen the light, so to
speak, of Lisp. I've read The Little Lisper. I've read Lisp 1.5 Manual. I've
written a Lisp interpreter in C. And so on. I'll use Lisp as long as I am
still allowed to do so (I'm a grad student, so no issues yet!).

So I love Lisp and I love Clojure for being a new Lisp.

JoC talks directly to me. It references works and people I know about, but
most of which I do not know enough about. It talks about how amazing Lisp is
but tells me even more than I already knew. Much more. It's written as if the
authors are saying, "Yes of course Lisp and Clojure are great, but here are
all the reasons WHY." For example, the section "nil Pun With Care" is
obviously written for someone who knows the variations on 'nil' found in
different Lisps. JoC's style is similar to Rich Hickey's famous presentations
("Yes, nil is different in Clojure... ok, let's just get through this slide,
you knew we'd have to at some point...").

JoC really takes Lisp appreciation to the next level. I was waiting for
something like this!

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johnswamps
If you can't possibly wait for the book until November, you can get a beta
version of the ebook at <http://www.manning.com/fogus/> for $28. Highly
recommended.

~~~
mattyb
I just bought the MEAP ebook _and_ the print book, using the InfoQ 35%
discount, for just $7 more. Highly recommended.

fogus, I'm not sure how these things work. If the discount affects your
royalties, say so and I'll delete this comment.

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fogus
Not at all -- the more people that read it the better. I'm not getting rich
either way. ;-)

I think the InfoQ code is infoq35 if anyone else wants to use it.

~~~
zephjc
Do you have any plans for discounts etc. for current purchasers if/when you
release any new editions?

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mark_l_watson
Michael: I have been enjoying the MEAP while you have been writing it. My
enthusiasm for Clojure is increasing and I like the book!

BTW, really off topic, but do you have any advice for making stack traces a
little more useful (using Clojure 1.2)? This is still a sore spot for me.

~~~
fogus
Have you tried the functions in the clojure.stacktrace namespace? They are
limited, but might get you some of what you want.

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technomancy
The clj-stacktrace third-party lib does a much better job of this. I have
hopes that it can be merged into Clojure in the future. (Not in 1.2 though;
it's already in RC-stage.)

~~~
mark_l_watson
Thanks Philip, that is good to know. Clojure is awesome, but it does still
have some rough spots. BTW, I looked at your resume: you are a major
contributor to open source projects (you have worked on 13 projects that I
use), and I am not, so I should stop complaining if things are not yet just
the way I like them :-)

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evgen
Now to begin the speculation on who the mystery author of the foreward is. Any
guesses? I am putting my money on John McCarthy.

~~~
dpritchett
My money's on Yegge:

 _"I used to have lot of open, long-standing concerns about the future of
programming and productivity, but my sabbatical last year finally brought me
some clojure."_

<http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2010/07/blogger-finger.html>

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revorad
Oh in that case, I'd buy the book just for the foreword.

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paradoja
In that case maybe the foreword is half of the book.

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sigzero
Would this be a good book to jump into Clojure with?

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prototype56
If you have previous experience with Lisp . Then probably yes. The book seems
to assume familiarity with clojure already .

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uio
First thing to do: Put source code on the webpage. That is the primary thing
to do.

