IDE for Clojure programming <span...

Terrence Miao - 2014-06-18 23:08:24+1000 - Updated: 2014-06-18 23:10:10+1000

IDE for Clojure programming

+Dean Budd Deano, what's IDE you recommend for Clojure programming?

Main stream IDE like IntelliJ and Eclipse are generic tools, not "medical" specialities targetting and dedicated to a paticular programming language. What's your suggestion? What IDE you are using in your work?

I'm very sure +James Gemmell Mr. J will say Emacs not because Clojure is Lisp rooted but also when you learn Emacs 2,000 built-in commands, learn how to customise in Emacs Lisp, that's as same effect as you learn Clojure ...

I come across Light Table today. This is some kind editor I have never seen before. Lightweight, one goal only, and plugable, also supports Clojure and other major programming languages. Anyone has experience with it and what your comments are?

Check: http://www.lighttable.com/

P.S. Any post I add as private in G+ please treat as business highly confidential stuff. No any information leak to the press and close family member please.

Dean Budd - 2014-06-19 08:06:45+1000 - Updated: 2014-06-19 08:07:15+1000

The majority of us use cursiveclojure.com. The hardcore Clojure guys use, no surprises, Emacs, which I've started tinkering with. One of the guys was using Light Table but then went back to Cursive. I'll ask him why.

Emacs is amazing. I've been pairing with one of our Clojure guru's and I'm simply amazed at this environment, to the point that I've started trying to learn.

Cursive has it over Emacs for some basic stuff like Project Browser and of course basic refactoring. In fact the Emacs guys have Textmate (or Sublime) running in the background so they can jump around the project more easily. IntelliJ wins hands down in this department.

Refactoring in Cursive is very basic (still no Extract Method even) but is still better then Emacs, which I don't think has any refactoring ability. I could be wrong here but I've had the Emacs guys say "Now that's cool!" on several occasions.

Dean Budd - 2014-06-19 08:13:52+1000 - Updated: 2014-06-19 08:14:11+1000

It's tough. I think I'll learn the basics of Emacs, just for pairing, but stick with Cursive, which is getting better every week.

The other factor is that we touch a few other languages too... Java, Groovy, Scala, so the IntelliJ environment unifies all this.

There's probably a 50/50 split between Clojure and Scala code here. I'm just writing Micro Services which are all in Clojure and will be integration stuff a little later which is all Scala/Akka.

Terrence Miao - 2014-06-19 09:31:37+1000

+Dean Budd very very informative answers Deano. Need a few months to digest your replies!

Dean Budd - 2014-06-19 09:40:11+1000 - Updated: 2014-06-19 09:41:50+1000

I have to say, one thing (amongst dozens) that I love about Clojure is that I'm not constantly thinking, "I could/should make this code more functional.", which I couldn't stop doing after the Functional Programming course.

It takes a massive load off my brain. HAHAHA!

Dean Budd - 2014-06-19 11:00:18+1000

Ok. This, from the guy who tried Light Table...

The repl wasn't very user friendly, that was the main issue

instarepl is nice for a demo, but not so nice for dev

Casper Casper - 2014-06-19 15:18:49+1000

" 50/50 split between Clojure and Scala code " - nice :D
I was using emacs (as a general code and text editor) for a while, there's still things I miss from it (which I can't say for any other editor/IDE)