Ep 046: When Is Clojure Not the Right Tool for the Job?

Functional Design in Clojure

Each week, we answer a different question about Clojure and functional programming.

If you have a question you'd like us to discuss, tweet @clojuredesign, send an email to [email protected], or join the #clojuredesign-podcast channel on the Clojurians Slack.

This week, the question is: "When is Clojure not the right tool for the job?" We look at the varied forms that Clojure can assume and consider where it might not fit.

Selected quotes:

• "Just reject all the jobs where Clojure is inappropriate and you'll always be able to use Clojure."
• "The JVM is like a super tanker. It will get a whole lot of work done. But it takes a little while to get going."
• "On the language level, there are social aspects. Bringing in Clojure covertly will make the rest of the team angry."
• "A lot of times, when talking about technical things, we tend to overlook the human effects."
• "Two questions: Is the technology suitable? Are we going to get screwed if we go down this path?"
• "There is a conceptual leap into functional programming that is non-trivial."
• "People will have a hard time letting go of their existing language until they can feel how Clojure is different."

Related episodes

• 038: How do I convince my coworkers to use Clojure?