I was wondering if the community thinks Clojure as a very first language is a good idea?
Some amazing resources were shared as to how to get started and why it’s a good first language.
But just to play the devils advocate I want to point out some reasons why Clojure may not be there yet to be regarded as a very good first language (But it’s definitely a superb 2nd language)
There are a couple of reasons for this
- Clojure is hosted - which means that learning Clojure by itself isn’t enough. Having some idea of Java/JVM or js/node is needed to wade through the quirkier parts. This makes it a bit confusing especially around tooling, builing, deploying, using libraries, etc.
- Clojure community tends to use libraries (instead of frameworks) and are usually not super opiniated around things like these. Which means the beginner programmer now needs to learn and reason about all of this in addition to building cool stuff! (This is also a PRO, less opinion = understanding the fundamentals better)
- Clojure is more fun (for me atleast) when you have experience with a non-clojure imperative language first, and the difference is starkly visible
- Resources and documentation around Clojure are abundant in plenty, but definitely not at the scale of Python/Ruby etc