For weeks, months—nay!—from the very moment you were born, you’ve felt it calling to you. At long last you’ll be united with the programming language you’ve been longing for: Clojure! As a Lisp-style functional programming language, Clojure lets you write robust and elegant code, and because it runs on the Java Virtual Machine, you can take advantage of the vast Java ecosystem. Clojure for the Brave and True offers a "dessert-first" approach: you’ll start playing with real programs immediately, as you steadily acclimate to the abstract but powerful features of Lisp and functional programming. Inside you’ll find an offbeat, practical guide to Clojure, filled with quirky sample programs that catch cheese thieves and track glittery vampires. Learn how to: –Wield Clojure’s core functions –Use Emacs for Clojure development –Write macros to modify Clojure itself –Use Clojure’s tools to simplify concurrency and parallel programming Clojure for the Brave and True assumes no prior experience with Clojure, the Java Virtual Machine, or functional programming. Are you ready, brave reader, to meet your true destiny? Grab your best pair of parentheses—you’re about to embark on an epic journey into the world of Clojure!

Annotation If you're an experienced programmer looking for a thorough but gentle introduction to Clojure, this is the perfect guide for you. Author Carin Meier not only provides a practical overview of this JVM language and its functional programming concepts, but also includes a complete hands-on training course to help you learn Clojure in a structured way.

Summary The Joy of Clojure, Second Edition is a deep look at the Clojure language. Fully updated for Clojure 1.6, this new edition goes beyond just syntax to show you the "why" of Clojure and how to write fluent Clojure code. You'll learn functional and declarative approaches to programming and will master the techniques that make Clojure so elegant and efficient. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology The Clojure programming language is a dialect of Lisp that runs on the Java Virtual Machine and JavaScript runtimes. It is a functional programming language that offers great performance, expressive power, and stability by design. It gives you built-in concurrency and the predictable precision of immutable and persistent data structures. And it's really, really fast. The instant you see long blocks of Java or Ruby dissolve into a few lines of Clojure, you'll know why the authors of this book call it a "joyful language." It's no wonder that enterprises like Staples are betting their infrastructure on Clojure. About the Book The Joy of Clojure, Second Edition is a deep account of the Clojure language. Fully updated for Clojure 1.6, this new edition goes beyond the syntax to show you how to write fluent Clojure code. You'll learn functional and declarative approaches to programming and will master techniques that make Clojure elegant and efficient. The book shows you how to solve hard problems related to concurrency, interoperability, and performance, and how great it can be to think in the Clojure way. Appropriate for readers with some experience using Clojure or common Lisp. What's Inside Build web apps using ClojureScript Master functional programming techniques Simplify concurrency Covers Clojure 1.6 About the Authors Michael Fogus and Chris Houser are contributors to the Clojure and ClojureScript programming languages and the authors of various Clojure libraries and language features. Table of Contents PART 1 FOUNDATIONS Clojure philosophy Drinking from the Clojure fire hose Dipping your toes in the pool PART 2 DATA TYPES On scalars Collection types PART 3 FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING Being lazy and set in your ways Functional programming PART 4 LARGE-SCALE DESIGN Macros Combining data and code Mutation and concurrency Parallelism PART 5 HOST SYMBIOSIS Java.next Why ClojureScript? PART 6 TANGENTIAL CONSIDERATIONS Data-oriented programming Performance Thinking programs Clojure changes the way you think

Think in the Clojure way! Once you're familiar with Clojure, take the next step with extended lessons on the best practices and most critical decisions you'll need to make while developing. Learn how to model your domain with data, transform it with pure functions, manage state, spread your work across cores, and structure apps with components. Discover how to use Clojure in the real world, and unlock the speed and power of this beautiful language on the Java Virtual Machine. Clojure Applied gives you the practical, realistic advice and depth of field that's been missing from your development practice. You want to develop software in the most effective, efficient way possible. This book gives you the answers you've been looking for in friendly, clear language. Dive into the core concepts of Clojure: immutable collections, concurrency, pure functions, and state management. You'll finally get the complete picture you've been looking for, rather than dozens of puzzle pieces you must assemble yourself. First, explore the core concepts of Clojure development: learn how to model your domain with immutable data; choose the ideal collection; and write simple, pure functions for efficient transformation. Next you'll apply those core concepts to build applications: discover how Clojure manages state and identity; spread your work for concurrent programming; and create and assemble components. Finally, see how to manage external integration and deployment concerns by developing a testing strategy, connecting with other data sources, and getting your libraries and applications out the door. Go beyond the toy box and into Clojure's way of thinking. By the end of this book, you'll have the tools and information to put Clojure's strengths to work. What You Need: To follow along with the examples in the book, you will need Clojure 1.6, Leinegen 2, and Java 6 or higher.

"Clojure programming ... This functional programming language not only lets you take advantage of Java libraries, services, and other JVM resources, it rivals other dynamic languages such as Ruby and Python. With this comprehensive guide, you'll learn Clojure fundamentals with examples that relate it to languages you already know"--Page 4 of cover

Behind every programming language lies a vision of how programs should be built. The vision behind Clojure is of a radically simple language framework holding together a sophisticated collection of programming features. Learning Clojure involves much more than just learning the mechanics of the language. To really get Clojure you need to understand the ideas underlying this structure of framework and features. You need this book: an accessible introduction to Clojure that focuses on the ideas behind the language as well as the practical details of writing code. Clojure attracts developers on the cutting edge and is arguably the best language for learning to program in the functional style without compromise. But this comes with a steep learning curve. Getting Clojure directly addresses this by teaching you how to think functionally as it teaches you the language. You'll learn about Clojure's powerful data structures and high-level functions, but you'll also learn what it means for a language to be functional, and how to think in Clojure's functional way. Each chapter of Getting Clojure takes a feature or two or three from the language, explains the syntax and the mechanics behind that feature so that you can make it work before digging into the deeper questions: What is the thinking behind the feature? And how does it fit in with the rest of the language? In Getting Clojure you'll learn Clojure's very simple syntax, but you'll also learn why that syntax is integral the way the language is constructed. You'll discover that most data structures in Clojure are immutable, but also why that leads to more reliable programs. And you'll see how easy it is to write Clojure functions and also how you can use those functions to build complex and capable systems. With real-world examples of how working Clojure programmers use the language, Getting Clojure will help you see the challenges of programming through the eye of experienced Clojure developers. What You Need: You will need to some background in programming. To follow along with the examples in the book, you will need Java 6 or new, Clojure 1.8 or 1.9, and Leiningen 2.