Clojure for the Brave and True: Learn the Ultimate Language and Become a Better Programmer

For weeks, months?—nay!—from the very moment you were born, you’ve felt it calling to you. At long last you’ll be united with the programming language you’ve been longing for: Clojure!

As a Lisp-style functional programming language, Clojure lets you write robust and elegant code, and because it runs on the Java Virtual Machine, you can take advantage of the vast Java ecosystem. Clojure for the Brave and True offers a “dessert-first” approach: you’ll start playing with real programs immediately, as you steadily acclimate to the abstract but powerful features of Lisp and functional programming. Inside you’ll find an offbeat, practical guide to Clojure, filled with quirky sample programs that catch cheese thieves and track glittery vampires.

Learn how to:

• Wield Clojure’s core functions
• Use Emacs for Clojure development
• Write macros to modify Clojure itself
• Use Clojure’s tools to simplify concurrency and parallel programming

Clojure for the Brave and True assumes no prior experience with Clojure, the Java Virtual Machine, or functional programming. Are you ready, brave reader, to meet your true destiny? Grab your best pair of parentheses—you’re about to embark on an epic journey into the world of Clojure!Covers Clojure 1.7Requires Java 1.6 or later

Table of Contents

Part I: Environment Setup
Chapter 1: Building, Running, and the REPL
Chapter 2: How to Use Emacs, an Excellent Clojure Editor

Part II: Language Fundamentals
Chapter 3: Do Things: A Clojure Crash Course
Chapter 4: Core Functions in Depth
Chapter 5: Functional Programming
Chapter 6: Organizing Your Project: A Librarian’s Tale
Chapter 7: Clojure Alchemy: Reading, Evaluation, and Macros
Chapter 8: Writing Macros

Part III: Advanced Topics
Chapter 9: The Sacred Art of Concurrent and Parallel Programming
Chapter 10: Clojure Metaphysics: Atoms, Refs, Vars, and Cuddle Zombies
Chapter 11: Mastering Concurrent Processes with core.async
Chapter 12: Working with the JVM
Chapter 13: Creating and Extending Abstractions with Multimethods, Protocols, and Records

Appendix A: Building and Developing with Leiningen
Appendix B: Boot, the Fancy Clojure Build Framework