Next up: Clojure
From all the new languages there are to learn, Clojure is top on my list. Here’s why:
1) I mostly use Python/Django for my web projects. I like Ruby too, but overall it’s similar. I think I can learn more (and improve my general programming skills) by trying something more different.
2) Lisps have always intrigued me, but I have yet to do a deep dive into any of them. If you think about all lisp dialects, Clojure is probably best-suited for web programming (leverages the JVM, all Java libraries at your fingertips, great concurrency story, immutable-by-default but with a real escape hatch). The best way to learn a language is to use it for a project you’re working on
3) Most importantly, I find myself trying to do REPL-based development with Python, but it’s a struggle. Clojure seems to have a really good answer here.
If anybody has thoughts/suggestions, let me know (@dickbrouwer). Scala is also on my list so if there’s anybody out there who can convince me…
