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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pros of Clojure
- It is a lisp118
- Persistent data structures101
- Concise syntax100
- jvm-based language90
- Concurrency89
- Interactive repl82
- Code is data76
- Lazy data structures61
- Open source61
- Macros56
- Functional49
- Simplistic22
- Immutable by default22
- Excellent collections19
- Fast-growing community18
- Multiple host languages14
- Practical Lisp14
- Simple (not easy!)14
- Addictive9
- Community9
- Because it's really fun to use9
- Web friendly8
- Rapid development8
- It creates Reusable code8
- Minimalist7
- Java interop6
- Programmable programming language5
- Regained interest in programming4
- Compiles to JavaScript3
- EDN3
- Share a lot of code with clojurescript/use on frontend2
Pros of Common Lisp
- Flexibility24
- High-performance21
- Comfortable: garbage collection, closures, macros, REPL17
- Stable13
- Lisp12
- Code is data7
- Can integrate with C (via CFFI)6
- Multi paradigm6
- Lisp is fun5
- Easy Setup4
- Macros4
- Parentheses3
- Purelly functional3
- Open source3
- Elegant3
- DSLs1
- Clean semantics1
- Can implement almost any feature as a library1
- CLOS/MOP1
- Powerful1
- Simple syntax1
- Best programming language1
- Will still be relevant 100 years from now1
- Still decades ahead of almost all programming languages1
- Generic functions1
- Multiple values1
- Formal specification, multiple implementations1
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Cons of Clojure
- Cryptic stacktraces9
- Need to wrap basically every java lib4
- Toxic community4
- Good code heavily relies on local conventions3
- Slow application startup2
- Tonns of abandonware2
- Usable only with REPL1
- Hiring issues1
- Bad documented libs1
- Macros are overused by devs1
- Tricky profiling1
- IDE with high learning curve1
- Configuration bolierplate1
- Conservative community1
- Have no good and fast fmt0
Cons of Common Lisp
- Too many Parentheses4
- Standard did not evolve since 19942
- No hygienic macros1
- Small library ecosystem1
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