I always wondered why Rails programmers prefer Clojure/Elixir over Scala, Scala syntax and concept seems to me much more translatable to Ruby than Clojure. In Scala, just like in Ruby 1 + 1 is 1.+(1), you have a scala version of method_missing, duck typing, pimp my library etc... Is there a reason why Rubists prefer a completely different paradigm such as Clojure?
I dove into Scala before Clojure because lisp was so alien to me. After a couple months of Scala, I still felt like I didn't know where to begin with a blank slate, though I was eventually productive.
When I finally gave Clojure a shot, I was building things my first week. Kinda like my first experience with Ruby.
Clojure felt like a better Ruby to me. The aesthetics that drew me to Ruby were improved in Clojure.
> Is there a reason why Rubists prefer a completely different
> paradigm such as Clojure?
The leap from Ruby to Scala is a larger gulf than Ruby to Clojure, though it's not obvious at a glance.
For me, Scala is a great language that continues to present me with good surprises (i.e. literal curry syntax). The only issue for me is the JVM and the package/namespace system (not to mention mvn, sbt).
In this way, Erlang/Elixir is more enjoyable for me. I much prefer the Erlang module system (Python and Node.js get a special mention here as well) vs. what you get with Ruby, PHP, Java, etc.
I got interested in Clojure because I felt I needed to learn something LISPy. Similarly, I got interested in Elixir because I felt I needed to learn Erlang. I have yet to have any kind of similar motivation for Scala.
These are not good reasons, but they are my reasons.
Having moved to Elixir from Ruby (among other languages), I can say that Elixir's syntax is pretty natural coming from the Ruby world. That's probably no coincidence, considering that its creator (Jose Valim) is a Rails contributor.
