• re: editor/IDE, use VSCode + Calva (unless you are already comfortable with emacs or vim)

Even if you already know how to program, Clojure may poses a few unique challenges (highlighted below), depending on where you’re coming from.

• learning the syntax and developing a mental model of the Clojure interpreter
  • basic things: defining, using functions; making bindings
  • new things: using macros (ex. →), writing macros
• functional programming, in the small
  • ex. “how to sum a list without a mutable variable”, etc.
  • using FP functions (map, reduce, etc.), anonymous functions, higher-order fns (ex. middleware), closures
• becoming aware of all the functions in clojure’s standard library
  • …and libraries in the Clojure community
• learning to manipulate code comfortably in your editor
  • ie. becoming comfortable with paredit or parinfer
• learning to adopt the “REPL-driven workflow”
  • evaluating code partials in your editor
    • (vs. making a change, re-running an entire script)
• functional programming, in the large
  • ie. how to architect a full application with minimal state

…with the goal of eventually doing all these things “idiomatically”, ie, “the way most experienced Clojure devs .