Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I'm not entirely sure I agree. The data also seems to indicate a significant chunk of users have moved from other dynamic languages. Perhaps they are the gateway drug?

I appreciate that clojure is less hardcore about its FP than Haskell, but it is still 'real' FP rather than the pseudo-fp of mutable-by-default, objects-first python, ruby, and javascript.

Anecdotally clojure delivers on some of the promises that those three languages (implicitly?) endorse (I've written python and javascript professionally for a number of years). I've dabbled in a bunch of FP languages (Clojure, Haskell, F#) as a result but I've settled in clojure. Haskell has many qualities that make me want to settle on it, but its strongest features (amazing static type system, full lazyness) is also the feature that causes me the most difficulty. In the end clojure provides more of what i was enjoying about python and js and much of what I like about Haskell but in a less frustrating way.

(caveat: I don't have a planet-brain - maybe if i did i would have settled on haskell instead).

When i answered the 'languages id go to question', i was assuming 'if clojure disappeared today', rather than 'which of these is clojure a stepping stone too'




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: