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Comment by olah_1 | Hacker News Reader

I'm not a fan of books like that because it doesn't teach you real-world usage. You can't be thrown into a standard clojure project repo after reading that book.

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I used this book (+ others obviously) and I think it was the best one around so far, for me at least. It does contain exercises for you to solve specific problems, which is helpful, but otherwise 4clojure comes closest I guess.

By the way, what languages have books that makes you go from knowing zero to being able to jump into a standard X-language project repository after reading through the book? Usually it goes from "knowing nothing" -> "knowing a bit, solving small problems" -> "solving bigger problems, maybe contribute to small projects" -> "being able to contribute substantially" -> "being able to own a project and lead it", and I know of no (single) books that takes you across multiple steps. Usually books focuses on one of the steps.

> By the way, what languages have books that makes you go from knowing zero to being able to jump into a standard X-language project repository after reading through the book?

Here is one example https://quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests/

I mean you have to start somewhere though

Totally agreed. Strangely Common Lisp is easier to start than clojure. Only once I can handle the system build up. Quickload, quick project etc. not clojure so far.

For me at least installing Leiningen was pretty straightforward. Just download the executable and it sets itself up. Setting up SBCL and Quicklisp was harder but not by a lot. What problems did you encounter setting up Clojure?

Well, what's a good starting book you recommend that gets you to there?

For Clojure specifically, there isn't one. But one that should be emulated in all languages is this: https://quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests/

Fair enough.

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