Windows install options for clojure-tools - which way?

Questions & Help How to?
1

Hello Community,

I’m quit new to Clojure and curious about the question, what would be the ‘right’ or preferred way to install clojure-tools (aka clojure and clj commands) on Windows?

Kindly awaiting pointers, suggestions etc.

Btw. I did already some research with the following outcome:

Thanks, Greg

2

The official recommendations for Clojure on Windows are per Clojure - Install Clojure:

  • Use WSL2 and Linux, or
  • Use the MSI installer on Powershell/cmd

I use Windows with WSL2 (and Ubuntu) for all my Clojure development on two machines. A big benefit is that pretty much all the books and tutorials assume macOS and/or Linux so everything you read will just work as written. Powershell/cmd have weird quoting issues so command-lines from books and tutorials often don’t work as written – you have to learn to adjust quotes manually: see the caveats at Clojure - Clojure CLI Reference.

I use VS Code on Windows with the WSL remote extension. That makes your Linux WSL2 system “seem” local, even tho’ all your files are on Linux and all your Clojure processes, REPLs etc, run on Linux.

FWIW, I also have clojure installed on PS/cmd via the MSI installer but pretty much never use it, because so many of my projects assume Linux shell environments, so I nearly always work on Linux, and interact via VS Code from Windows.

3

Sean,

thanks for your suggestions. I will give the WSL option a try.

Cheers, Greg