Grails, SpringSource And Clojure - No Fluff Just Stuff

Grails, SpringSource And Clojure

Posted by: Jeff Brown on

I recently developed a <a href="http://grails.org">Grails</a> plugin which provides support for easily accessing <a href="http://clojure.org/">Clojure</a> code in a Grails app. The details of how the plugin works are covered at <a href="http://grails.org/plugin/clojure">http://grails.org/plugin/clojure</a>. That page includes a link to a brief video demonstration which is available at <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/jeffscreencasts/grails_clojure_demo.mov">http://s3.amazonaws.com/jeffscreencasts/grails_clojure_demo.mov</a>. Check it out. <br /><br />Shortly after publishing the plugin I posted <a href="http://twitter.com/jeffscottbrown/status/2716646376">something about it</a> on Twitter. Not too long after that a couple of other <a href="http://www.springsource.com">SpringSource</a> folks tweeted about Clojure (<a href="http://twitter.com/adriancolyer/statuses/2735215584">here</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/graemerocher/statuses/2735112222">here</a>). I got a couple of questions (in jest I am sure) about SpringSource and Clojure. "Is SpringSource Moving To Clojure?". Of course not. SpringSource is not moving to Clojure. SpringSource is all about helping folks build serious applications for the JVM and most of that is done in Java. This is not news. I work on Groovy and Grails. Much of what I do is in Groovy. This too is not news. Making it easy for folks to use languages like Scala and Clojure while taking advantage of all the great stuff that Grails has to offer, that is appealing to me and that is why I developed the Clojure plugin. <br /><br />Clojure is a really interesting language. There are <a href="http://www.scala-lang.org/">others</a>. The fact that 3 folks from SpringSource have expressed some kind of interest in Clojure shouldn't be all that surprising. There are probably even more folks at SpringSource who have some kind of interest in Clojure but for entertainment, lets focus on the 3 mentioned...<br /><br />I am honestly not sure how many technologists work for SpringSource but for the sake of having a number to work with, lets say there are 50. Lets also say that Clojure is interesting enough that 15% of JVM developers are interested in learning more about it. I can't back that number up with any research, lets just go with it. If 15% of JVM developers are interested in the language and you take a random group of 50 JVM developers (the 50 in question are certainly not 50 random developers, these are the edge cutters which probably makes them more likely to be interested in keeping an eye on what is new, but work with the idea that they are random)... Do the math. No, really... Do the math. Do the math to figure out the likelihood that 3 of the 50 would be interested in Clojure. I challenge you to do the math in Clojure and post your solution in a comment here. Do it in Scala, Do it in Groovy. Pick a JVM language and do the math.<br /><br />The simplest solution is probably not very interesting. Prefer a solution that shows off something interesting in your language of choice.<br /><br />Hmmm... are you more likely to need to refer to <a href="http://www.pragprog.com/titles/shcloj/programming-clojure">the Clojure book</a>, or the high school math book? ;)<br /><br />Now, you have one more reason to tinker with a new language.<br /><br />Enjoy.
Jeff Brown

About Jeff Brown

Grails co-founder and OCI Grails Practice Lead, Jeff Scott Brown has been doing JVM application development for as long as the JVM has existed. He has spent most of the last decade focused specifically on work related to the Grails framework. Jeff co-authored The Definitive Guide to Grails Second Edition and The Definitive Guide to Grails 2, in partnership with Grails co-founder and OCI Grails Team Lead, Graeme Rocher. Jeff is also a regular public speaker on Grails, Groovy, and other JVM-related technologies.

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