Less Java and Clojure, more JavaScript

Originally published January 21, 2014

... and, almost no Ruby.

I have always been a polyglot (programmer who uses many programming languages). Since 1974, I have easily been paid to design and write software in over a dozen languages. I still really like (love!!) Clojure as a language, Java is very practical for many applications because of the JVM's efficiency and the wonderful Java library and framework ecosystem. I don't use Ruby very much anymore except for small utilities.

Why JavaScript? The primary reason is that I am writing a JavaScript book ("Build Intelligent Systems with JavaScript") and the secondary reason is most of my development efforts are centering around Meteor right now. The more I use Meteor, the more impressed I am. I am not yet a highly skilled JavaScript programmer (I just use a small bit of the language, and rely in IntelliJ with jslint always running to keep me mostly out of trouble) but JavaScript is a good-enough language and I find languages that compile to JavaScript like ClojureScript and CoffeeScript to be a little more trouble than they are worth (although I read and digest every article I see on ClojureScript on Hacker News). I have written the same sort of web app in both Clojure + ClojureScript and in JavaScript + Meteor and I find the Meteor experience to be more effective.

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