In a land bereft of a canonical "killer app" web framework or two, one must think about the what, why, how, where of all the moving parts. Out here, one must become a student of web framework architecture in addition to web application architecture. For here, in Clojure-land, the two are one. ☯
The one in which we design a rich Integrated Development Environment (IDE) experience, using Clojure as our muse. Featuring Language Server Protocol (lsp-mode + clojure-lsp), clojure-mode, cider, and more! Buckle up and get a coffee.
We want to maximize our ability to "stay in The Zone". So the aim is to create the fastest, smoothest, tightly integrated, and unobtrusive mechanism to get things done using the keyboard alone.
Or the one in which we confront our elisp n00bishness and try to be better at using it. And we learn new habits to understand our Emacs better. Better late than never.
Elpa, Melpa, git repo. Vendor package straight from source. It compiled? Fetch some more! Elpa, Melpa, git repo. In more adult terms, we learn to use use-package to fetch, install, initialise, configure useful packages that enhance our Emacs experience.
The first action must, of course, be to colour the bikeshed and set some decent defaults.
Or, finally biting the bullet to redesigning my developerly and writerly experience, from the ground up, with Emacs.
It is with no small thanks to MDN, StackOverflow, Firefox's support for countless open tabs, JavaScript's support for first-class functions, and first-class supportive colleagues, I learned it is possible for a web front end novice to program "text art animations". Whatever that is even. Because I thoroughly enjoyed doing just that for Hanukkah of Data 2022. Here's how it went down.
Newcomers to Clojure so frequently ask this question that an FAQ/Guide is being discussed, to add to the Clojure website. I struggled a lot with the question too, when starting off in Clojureland. Here are my notes and opinions.
I find myself telling people that they will have to pry org-mode from my cold dead hands. Which befuddles me. Why, as an ingrate software nerd who has soured on software technology — talk about biting the hand that feeds — do I evince such strong sentiment about a software program?!
FizzBuzz is everywhere. Every programmer passes through its rite of passage, or at least bears witness to another. Over the years, many gentlenerds have taken it upon themselves to discover ever new ways to incant those hoary symbols. I hereby enjoin these few drops of Clojure to that roiling ocean of FizzBuzzery.
This primer is for people like me, who long dreamed of lovingly hand-crafting our own home on the Internet. We begin our quest by seeing, feeling, and harnessing pure HTML.energy.
How this blog came to be is a minor miracle. Long story short, I conned myself into believing nobody will find /and/ read it. But you're here, aren't you? And you're reading this. Aren't You? Confucamus. Well, here's how you got here.