Overview

Clojure

Stacks1.9K

Followers1.4K

Votes1.1K

GitHub Stars10.7K

Forks1.5K

Common Lisp

Stacks265

Followers255

Votes145

Clojure vs Common Lisp: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will explore the key differences between Clojure and Common Lisp. Both Clojure and Common Lisp are powerful programming languages, but they have different features and philosophies that set them apart. Understanding these differences can help developers choose the right language for their specific needs.

Syntax: One major difference between Clojure and Common Lisp is their syntax. Clojure is a Lisp dialect that has a more streamlined and minimalist syntax compared to Common Lisp. It uses square brackets for function calls and uses prefixes for operators, making the code more concise and easier to read. Common Lisp, on the other hand, has a more traditional and expressive syntax that uses parentheses for function calls and infix notation for operators.
Concurrency: Another significant difference between Clojure and Common Lisp is their approach to concurrency. Clojure was designed from the ground up to be a concurrent programming language. It provides built-in abstractions and immutable data structures that make it easy to write concurrent and parallel code. Common Lisp, while capable of handling concurrency, lacks the built-in support and abstractions that Clojure offers.
ClojureScript: Clojure has a unique advantage over Common Lisp with its ClojureScript feature. ClojureScript is a variant of Clojure that compiles to JavaScript, allowing developers to write code that runs in the browser. This feature makes Clojure a valuable choice for web development and front-end programming, as it enables developers to leverage their Clojure skills to build interactive web applications.
Community: The communities around Clojure and Common Lisp also differ in size and activity. Clojure has a larger and more active community, with a growing ecosystem of libraries and frameworks. The vibrant community provides resources, support, and a wealth of knowledge for Clojure developers. Common Lisp, although having a smaller community, has a dedicated group of enthusiasts and contributors who actively maintain and enhance the language.
Macros: Macros are a powerful feature in Lisp languages that allow developers to define custom syntax and extend the language capabilities. While both Clojure and Common Lisp support macros, they have different macro systems. Clojure uses a more restricted and focused approach to macros, known as "syntactic abstraction," which simplifies the macro system and makes it more predictable. Common Lisp, on the other hand, has a more traditional and powerful macro system that provides more flexibility and control but can also be more complex to use.
Integration: Clojure and Common Lisp can be integrated with other programming languages, but they have different levels of integration. Clojure, being built on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), has seamless integration with Java. This allows developers to leverage existing Java libraries and frameworks directly in their Clojure code. Common Lisp also has integration with other languages through foreign function interfaces (FFIs), but it may require more effort and expertise to achieve seamless integration compared to Clojure's JVM integration.

In summary, Clojure and Common Lisp differ in syntax, concurrency support, ClojureScript, community size, macro systems, and integration capabilities. These differences make each language suitable for different use cases and developer preferences.

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Advice on Clojure, Common Lisp

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.

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Comments

Prakhar

Feb 7, 2022

Needs adviceon

Java

JavaScript

Kotlin

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

Detailed Comparison

Clojure	Common Lisp
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.	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]
Statistics
GitHub Stars 10.7K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 1.5K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 1.9K	Stacks 265
Followers 1.4K	Followers 255
Votes 1.1K	Votes 145
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 Good code heavily relies on local conventions 3 Slow application startup	Pros 24 Flexibility 22 High-performance 17 Comfortable: garbage collection, closures, macros, REPL 13 Stable 12 Lisp Cons 4 Too many Parentheses 3 Standard did not evolve since 1994 2 Small library ecosystem 2 No hygienic macros 1 Ultra-conservative community
Integrations
Java	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Clojure, Common Lisp?

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 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

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

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 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

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 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# (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 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 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.