The programming community is showing significant interest in Glojure, a new Clojure interpreter hosted on Go, as developers seek to bridge the gap between Clojure's powerful features and Go's extensive package ecosystem. This development represents a notable shift from Clojure's traditional Java ecosystem roots, offering new possibilities for developers who appreciate both languages.
Community Reception and Early Adoption
Developers are particularly enthusiastic about Glojure's potential to leverage Go's growing library of stable packages. While some debate exists about the comparative advantages of Java's ecosystem, community members highlight that Go's packages often align better with modern development practices. As one community member notes:
Clojure being built on top of Java is a fine decision, but I would love to use clojure to compose the ever growing library of stable packages that exist in the Go ecosystem.
Key Go Standard Library Packages Available in Glojure:
- fmt
- io
- net/http
- strings
- math
- os
- time
- regexp
Technical Implementation and Current State
The project implements a tree-walk interpreter, distinguishing itself from other Go-based Clojure implementations like Joker and let-go. Early adopters have successfully tested various features, including macros working with Go's standard library functions. However, some users report encountering panic errors at the REPL, indicating that the project is still in its early stages and requires further development.
Comparison with Other Implementations
Glojure stands out among Go-based Clojure implementations due to its hosted nature and extensible Go interop capabilities. Unlike its counterparts Joker and let-go, Glojure maintains true hosting characteristics, meaning Go values can be used as Clojure values and vice versa, similar to how Clojure interacts with Java on the JVM.
Comparison of Go-based Clojure Implementations:
| Implementation | Type | Hosted | Go Interop | Concurrency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glojure | Tree-walk interpreter | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Joker | Tree-walk interpreter | No | No | Yes (with GIL) |
| let-go | Bytecode Interpreter | No | No | Yes |
Future Prospects
While currently in development with some known limitations, Glojure shows promise for developers looking to combine Clojure's functional programming paradigms with Go's practical library ecosystem. The project's intentional structure and analysis approach, possibly inspired by tools.analyzer, suggests a solid foundation for future development.
Technical note: REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) is an interactive programming environment that takes user inputs, evaluates them, and returns the results to the user.
Reference: Glojure: A Clojure Interpreter Hosted on Go