I noticed Clojurescript in Github before the big announcement and thought it was an interesting idea. I am a big fan in general about having a Clojure syntax that compiles to Javascript. As a platform it is even more ubiquitous than Java and it would be a great way of simplifying Javascript’s closure and function syntax.
However in practice Clojurescript has been desperately disappointing for me. Firstly there is the weird decision to not have the code run on OpenJDK. This really limits its utility: I don’t seem to have a machine with a compatible setup at the moment despite having various flavours of Javascript interpreters available.
Then while looking for an answer as to how soon this problem is likely to be resolved I discovered this thread which was another level of disappointment. The original post is undiplomatic, perhaps even inflammatory, however the response indicates a level of befuddling clueless-ness.
If you want something to compile into Javascript I think you actually do want it to compile into good idiomatic Javascript unless you have a really good reason not to. You also do want to be able to use really good existing frameworks like jQuery (which really is the defacto standard right now).
The reason I think these are reasonable requests is that Coffeescript seems to manage to do both. Before Coffeescript maybe Clojurescript’s idiosyncrasies would have been forgiveable but being late to the party as well as being less well-mannered makes the defiance in the response seem poorly judged.
I am not sure what Clojurescript is really for (apparently it is aimed at a future community of people that don’t exist yet, which is … helpful). I don’t feel that it is really simpatico with the existing Javascript code that works in the browser and I am not sure it really has a place in the server-side world of Node.js where it might have been a better fit.
I remain open-minded though and would be willing to give Clojurescript a second go once the dust has settled a bit.
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