At present the biggest problem Clojure has, is the lack of an easily accessible development environment. If the language is a masterpiece but has no complete, integrated and convenient development environment to offer it his like having a new Porsche but no keys to open the doors. This is what is missing to give the language more momentum and popularity.
It does not have to be as complete and comfortable as Allegro from Franz (Common Lisp) or Lispworks from the start. If you think of IDLE for Python for example, it comes with the distribution and works out of the box. This is easy access! So far I have tested: Emacs / clojure-mode VimClojure Textmate / Clojure bundle Eclipse / counterclockwise Netbeans / Enclojure Waterfront One thing up front - please don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing on these tools, they provide value for the expert! (But unfortunately not for the beginner.) Emacs / clojure-mode: You need to install git to pull down the latest sources! You need Clojure and Clojure-contrib (usually you cannot dowload contrib but have to build it) You need to have ant / maven to build contrib You need to download Emacs You need to download clojure-mode You need to modify .el startup files for Emacs and then - how do I get to the REPL? how does this all work? Is there any doc or help? - no Sorry but Emacs is unfamiliar to regular developers VimClojure: similar to clojure-mode setup ... separate downloads, builds, configs ... and then it does not work out of the box or you need to read forums for hours to assemble you base knowledge on how things work Textmate / Clojure bundle: The Clojure bundle requires Ruby. Nothing against Ruby, but I have to install another entire language just to give me some limited IDE features. At least Textmate is a very convenient Editor for non-geeks Eclipse / counterclockwise You need to download and install this giant block of "can do everything" infrastructure - Eclipse You need to install the plugin that is good an evolving but still limited If you consider the disk- and memory-space- / feature-ratio ... Netbeans / Enclojure worked relatively well so far ... needs time to grow further Waterfront I like the idea very much lightweight Clojure specific (in contrast to Eclipse, Netbeans, Idea) configurable in Clojure! unfortunately it keeps crashing If a more evolved / robust waterfront would be a part of the contrib, it would be a big step towards approachability -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
