Getting started with Clojure/Emacs/Slime | Hacker News Reader

Slime

nklein.com

31 pointswglb4 comments

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Here is what I did -

1. Started with emacs-starter-kit - http://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit

2. Install clojure-mode, slime, slime-repl and swank-clojure using ELPA (M-x package-list-packages)

3. Install http://github.com/technomancy/leiningen (again technomancy)

Starting a new project is the following -

1. lein new <project_name>

2. Tweak the project.clj to pull in the dependencies I need (Using the project.clj that leiningen is a good starting point http://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/blob/master/project.... )

3. Fire up emacs - M-x swank-clojure-project and point to the root of the newly created leiningen project.

I understand that those new to Java-land, the concept of the classpath, jars, maven all can be a little daunting, but that is the nature of Java as it stands today.

Hope this helped

[Edited for formatting]

As the maintainer of the clojure emacs support, I should point out that this comment shows the best way to get started. The linked article shows a method that works for old-time emacs vets but is much much more complicated than necessary. Unfortunately this gives the impression that it takes hours to get started with Emacs, but this is only true if you ignore the instructions in the readme.

This is of course the difficult way to get started with Clojure. If you want something that works and that works quickly so that you can focus immediately on Clojure, NetBeans+Enclojure or Eclipse+Counterclockwise are the way to go. Up to date instructions for both and others (Vim, Idea, et al) here: http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/clojure/Getting_Started

(I'm an Emacs/Swank/SLIME person myself)

NetBeans+Enclojure is really nice. It has some features even Emacs doesn't. I'm an Emacs user, too (thanks to Clojure) but I still kind of resent having to spend half my time configuring and learning crazy key-chords to get things done.

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