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Clojure

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1.3K
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1.1K
Common Lisp

189
242
+ 1
143
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Clojure vs Common Lisp: What are the differences?

Developers describe Clojure as "A dynamic programming language that targets the Java Virtual Machine". 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. On the other hand, Common Lisp is detailed as "The modern, multi-paradigm, high-performance, compiled, ANSI-standardized descendant of the long-running family of Lisp programming languages". Lisp was originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs, influenced by the notation of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus. It quickly became the favored programming language for artificial intelligence (AI) research. As one of the earliest programming languages, Lisp pioneered many ideas in computer science, including tree data structures, automatic storage management, dynamic typing, conditionals, higher-order functions, recursion, and the self-hosting compiler. [source: wikipedia].

Clojure and Common Lisp can be categorized as "Languages" tools.

"It is a lisp" is the primary reason why developers consider Clojure over the competitors, whereas "Flexibility" was stated as the key factor in picking Common Lisp.

Clojure is an open source tool with 7.85K GitHub stars and 1.25K GitHub forks. Here's a link to Clojure's open source repository on GitHub.

According to the StackShare community, Clojure has a broader approval, being mentioned in 95 company stacks & 80 developers stacks; compared to Common Lisp, which is listed in 5 company stacks and 3 developer stacks.

Advice on Clojure and Common Lisp
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ClojureClojure
and
ScalaScala

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

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Replies (3)
Recommends
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ScalaScala

Clojure is a Lisp dialect, so if you like Lisp that's probably the way to go. Scala is more popular and broadly used, and has a larger job market especially for data engineering. Both are functional but Scala is more interoperable with Java libraries, probably a big factor in its popularity. I prefer Scala for a number of reasons, but in terms of jobs Scala is the clear leader.

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Recommends
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ScalaScala

Scala has more momentum. It is good for back-end programming. The popular big data framework Spark is written in Scala. Spark is a marketable skill.

If you need to program something very dynamic like old school A.I., Clojure is attractive. You would chose Scala if prefer a statically typed language, and Clojure if you prefer a dynamically typed language.

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ivanopagano
Senior Consultant at scalac.io · | 1 upvotes · 18.4K views
Recommends

It's not clear exactly what you mean by "high money", you mean financial support to the language, money paid for a job, economic health of the market the language is positioned on?

In any case, it's very hard to give any advice here, since you'd need to provide details on the intended usage, what sector, kind of product/service, team size, potential customer type... Both languages are very general purpose and decently supported, each have its own pros and cons, both are functional as approach, and neither is really mainstream.

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Decisions about Clojure and Common Lisp

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.

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Pros of Clojure
Pros of Common Lisp
  • 118
    It is a lisp
  • 101
    Persistent data structures
  • 100
    Concise syntax
  • 90
    jvm-based language
  • 89
    Concurrency
  • 82
    Interactive repl
  • 76
    Code is data
  • 61
    Lazy data structures
  • 61
    Open source
  • 56
    Macros
  • 49
    Functional
  • 22
    Simplistic
  • 22
    Immutable by default
  • 19
    Excellent collections
  • 18
    Fast-growing community
  • 14
    Multiple host languages
  • 14
    Practical Lisp
  • 14
    Simple (not easy!)
  • 9
    Addictive
  • 9
    Community
  • 9
    Because it's really fun to use
  • 8
    Web friendly
  • 8
    Rapid development
  • 8
    It creates Reusable code
  • 7
    Minimalist
  • 6
    Java interop
  • 5
    Programmable programming language
  • 4
    Regained interest in programming
  • 3
    Compiles to JavaScript
  • 3
    EDN
  • 2
    Share a lot of code with clojurescript/use on frontend
  • 24
    Flexibility
  • 21
    High-performance
  • 17
    Comfortable: garbage collection, closures, macros, REPL
  • 13
    Stable
  • 12
    Lisp
  • 7
    Code is data
  • 6
    Can integrate with C (via CFFI)
  • 6
    Multi paradigm
  • 5
    Lisp is fun
  • 4
    Easy Setup
  • 4
    Macros
  • 3
    Parentheses
  • 3
    Purelly functional
  • 3
    Open source
  • 3
    Elegant
  • 1
    DSLs
  • 1
    Clean semantics
  • 1
    Can implement almost any feature as a library
  • 1
    CLOS/MOP
  • 1
    Powerful
  • 1
    Simple syntax
  • 1
    Best programming language
  • 1
    Will still be relevant 100 years from now
  • 1
    Still decades ahead of almost all programming languages
  • 1
    Generic functions
  • 1
    Multiple values
  • 1
    Formal specification, multiple implementations

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Cons of Clojure
Cons of Common Lisp
  • 9
    Cryptic stacktraces
  • 4
    Need to wrap basically every java lib
  • 4
    Toxic community
  • 3
    Good code heavily relies on local conventions
  • 2
    Slow application startup
  • 2
    Tonns of abandonware
  • 1
    Usable only with REPL
  • 1
    Hiring issues
  • 1
    Bad documented libs
  • 1
    Macros are overused by devs
  • 1
    Tricky profiling
  • 1
    IDE with high learning curve
  • 1
    Configuration bolierplate
  • 1
    Conservative community
  • 0
    Have no good and fast fmt
  • 4
    Too many Parentheses
  • 2
    Standard did not evolve since 1994
  • 1
    No hygienic macros
  • 1
    Small library ecosystem

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- No public GitHub repository available -

What is Clojure?

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.

What is Common Lisp?

Lisp was originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs, influenced by the notation of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus. It quickly became the favored programming language for artificial intelligence (AI) research. As one of the earliest programming languages, Lisp pioneered many ideas in computer science, including tree data structures, automatic storage management, dynamic typing, conditionals, higher-order functions, recursion, and the self-hosting compiler. [source: wikipedia]

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What companies use Clojure?
What companies use Common Lisp?
See which teams inside your own company are using Clojure or Common Lisp.
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What tools integrate with Common Lisp?

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What are some alternatives to Clojure and Common Lisp?
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.
Haskell
It is a general purpose language that can be used in any domain and use case, it is ideally suited for proprietary business logic and data analysis, fast prototyping and enhancing existing software environments with correct code, performance and scalability.
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.
Julia
Julia is a high-level, high-performance dynamic programming language for technical computing, with syntax that is familiar to users of other technical computing environments. It provides a sophisticated compiler, distributed parallel execution, numerical accuracy, and an extensive mathematical function library.
Erlang
Some of Erlang's uses are in telecoms, banking, e-commerce, computer telephony and instant messaging. Erlang's runtime system has built-in support for concurrency, distribution and fault tolerance. OTP is set of Erlang libraries and design principles providing middle-ware to develop these systems.
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