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  5. Clojure vs Perl

Clojure vs Perl

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Clojure
Clojure
Stacks1.9K
Followers1.4K
Votes1.1K
GitHub Stars10.7K
Forks1.5K
Perl
Perl
Stacks4.3K
Followers935
Votes575
GitHub Stars2.2K
Forks602

Clojure vs Perl: What are the differences?

# Introduction

1. **Syntax**: Clojure uses Lisp syntax, with its distinctive use of parentheses and prefix notation, while Perl follows a more traditional syntax with its use of symbols and keywords.
2. **Type System**: Clojure is a dynamically typed language, allowing for flexibility and rapid development, while Perl is a dynamically typed language with an implicit type conversion system that can lead to unexpected behavior.
3. **Concurrency**: Clojure has built-in support for software transactional memory (STM) and immutable data structures, enabling easy concurrency management, whereas Perl requires the use of external modules for handling concurrency.
4. **Functional Programming**: Clojure emphasizes functional programming paradigms, with first-class functions and immutability by default, while Perl supports functional programming but is more focused on imperative and object-oriented programming.
5. **Community**: The Clojure community is known for its focus on functional programming best practices, immutability, and simplicity, while the Perl community has a strong emphasis on pragmatism, efficiency, and flexibility.
6. **Performance**: Clojure is known for its efficient use of resources and performance optimizations, thanks to its JVM integration and functional programming principles, whereas Perl might require additional optimization efforts for performance-critical applications.

# Summary

In Summary, Clojure and Perl differ notably in syntax, type system, concurrency management, approach to functional programming, community culture, and performance considerations.

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Advice on Clojure, Perl

Fronted
Fronted

Nov 23, 2020

Decided

We’re a new startup so we need to be able to deliver quick changes as we find our product market fit. We’ve also got to ensure that we’re moving money safely, and keeping perfect records. The technologies we’ve chosen mix mature but well maintained frameworks like Django, with modern web-first and api-first front ends like GraphQL, NextJS, and Chakra. We use a little Golang sparingly in our backend to ensure that when we interact with financial services, we do so with statically compiled, strongly typed, and strictly limited and reviewed code.

You can read all about it in our linked blog post.

720k views720k
Comments
Prakhar
Prakhar

Feb 7, 2022

Needs adviceonJavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScriptKotlinKotlin

Basically, I am looking for a good language that compiles to Java and JavaScript(and can use their libraries/frameworks). These JVM languages seem good to me, but I have no interest in Android. Which programming language is the best of these? I am looking for one with high money and something functional.

Edit: Kotlin was originally on this list but I removed it since I had no interest in Android

47.9k views47.9k
Comments
Rubin
Rubin

Software Cloud Developer at RUBIN THOMAS

Oct 8, 2020

Review

As a developer myself, I would recommend you not to restrict yourself to JAVA, PHP or any other language. New Tools/languages keep coming every day. If you do plan to move to freelancing. PHP has a lot of options in the freelance space and a lot of competition too.

Learning PHP is as simple as learning any other language. It depends merely on your interest.

Personally if you can code, you should not restrict yourself. I have had to code in many languages, PHP, Perl, shell script, Python, Java, Javascript, Ruby etc... I would keep your developing skills and logic, algorithms etc.. and increase your knowledge and experience in the different languages.

I agree with you JAVA is a lot more time consuming. But it also has its enterprise level scope.

At the same time learning a new language should not be a barrier for you to stop exploring what's out there and keeping your skills up to date. Learning new technologies should be your primary focus and getting project out of your stack helps you build a good reputation.

There are many options for you to pursue. Having an open mindset will help you move forward. If you look to learn now, you are setting yourself up for a brighter future.

684k views684k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Clojure
Clojure
Perl
Perl

Clojure is designed to be a general-purpose language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure is a compiled language - it compiles directly to JVM bytecode, yet remains completely dynamic. Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system.

Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, and more.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
10.7K
GitHub Stars
2.2K
GitHub Forks
1.5K
GitHub Forks
602
Stacks
1.9K
Stacks
4.3K
Followers
1.4K
Followers
935
Votes
1.1K
Votes
575
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 118
    It is a lisp
  • 101
    Concise syntax
  • 100
    Persistent data structures
  • 90
    jvm-based language
  • 89
    Concurrency
Cons
  • 11
    Cryptic stacktraces
  • 5
    Need to wrap basically every java lib
  • 4
    Toxic community
  • 3
    Slow application startup
  • 3
    Tonns of abandonware
Pros
  • 72
    Lots of libraries
  • 66
    Open source
  • 61
    Text processing
  • 54
    Powerful
  • 49
    Unix-style
Cons
  • 4
    Messy $/@/% syntax
  • 3
    No exception handling
  • 2
    No OS threads
  • 2
    Bad OO support
  • 2
    "1;"
Integrations
Java
Java
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Clojure, Perl?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

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