clojurescript

wrong way: user=> (defrecord Thing [foo bar]) user.Thing user=> (Thing. 1 2) ; correct usage #user.Thing{:foo 1, :bar 2} user=> (Thing. 1) ; wrong number of fields CompilerException java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: No matching ctor found for class user.Thing, compiling:(/tmp/form-init7089728177345913731.clj:1:1) user=> (Thing 1 2) ; forgetting the dot RuntimeException Expecting var, but Thing is mapped to class user.Thing clojure.lang.Util.runtimeException (Util.java:219) That's good! Especially if you're new to the language. You see where you messed up right away. But ClojureScript just silently gives you nils: ClojureScript:cljs.user> (defrecord Thing [foo bar]) cljs.user/Thing ClojureScript:cljs.user> (Thing. 1 2) ; correct usage #cljs.user.Thing{:foo 1, :bar 2} ClojureScript:cljs.user> (Thing. 1) ; wrong number of fields #cljs.user.Thing{:foo 1, :bar nil} ClojureScript:cljs.user> (Thing 1 2) ; forgetting the dot nil This should be a bug report against the CLJS compiler (edit: now it is[1]), and it's probably not that hard to fix. I could fix it. You could fix it. (The CLJS compiler is very approachable and needs contributors, by the way.) But, especially as a newbie, this kind of stuff can bite you. JVM Clojure is more polished. 1. http://dev.clojure.org/jira/browse/CLJS-639

he learning (metaphorically of course -- ML is mostly vectors, matrices, linear algebra and such). The course videos are online for free (http://work.caltech.edu/telecourse.html), and you can get the corresponding book on Amazon -- it's short (http://www.amazon.com/Learning-From-Data-Yaser-Abu-Mostafa/d...). Python is a good general purpose language for getting back in the groove. It's used for everything, from server-side scripting to Web dev to machine learning, and everywhere in between. "Coding the Matrix" (https://www.coursera.org/course/matrix, http://codingthematrix.com/) is an online course by Prof Philip Klein that teaches you linear algebra in Python so it pairs well with "Learning from Data". Clojure (http://clojure.org/) and Go (http://golang.org/) are two emerging languages. Both are elegantly designed with good concurrency models (concurrency is becoming increasingly important in the multicore world). Rich Hickey is the author Clojure -- watch his talks to understand the philosophy behind the design (http://www.infoq.com/author/Rich-Hickey). "Simple Made Easy" (http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy) is one of those talks everyone should see. It will change the way you think. Knowing your way around a cloud platform is essential these days. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has ruled the space for some time, but last year Google opened its gates (https://cloud.google.com/). Its high-performance cloud platform is based on Google search, and learning how to rev its engines will be a valuable thing. Relative few have had time to explore its depths so it's a platform you could jump from. Hadoop MapReduce (https://hadoop.apache.org/, http://www.cloudera.com, http://hortonworks.com/) has been the dominant data processing framework the last few years, and Hadoop has become almost synonymous with the term "Big Data". Hadoop is like the Big Data operating system, and true to its name, Hadoop is big and bulky and slow. However, there is a new framework on the scene that's true to its name. Spark (http://spark.incubator.apache.org/) is small and nimble and fast. Spark is part of the Berkeley Data Analytics Stack (BDAS - https://amplab.cs.berkeley.edu/software/), and it will likely emerge as Hadoop's successor (see last week's thread -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6466222). ElasticSearch (http://www.elasticsearch.org/) is a good to know. Paired with Kibana (http://www.elasticsearch.org/overview/kibana/) and LogStash (http://www.elasticsearch.org/overview/logstash/), it's morphed into a multipurpose analytics platform you can use in 100 different ways. Databases abound. There's a bazillion new databases and new ones keep popping up for increasingly specialized use cases. Cassandra (https://cassandra.apache.org), Datomic (http://www.cognitect.com/), and Titan (http://thinkaurelius.github.io/titan/) to name a few (http://nosql-database.org/). Redis (http://redis.io/) is a Swiss Army knife you can apply anywhere, and it's simple to use -- you'll want it on your belt. If you're doing Web work and front-end stuff, JavaScript is a must. AngularJS (http://angularjs.org/) and ClojureScript (https://github.com/clojure/clojurescript) are two of the most interersting developments. Oh, and you'll need to know Git (http://git-scm.com, https://github.com). See Linus' talk at Google to get the gist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8 :-). As you can see, the opportunities for learning emerging tech are overflowing, and what's cool is the ways you can apply it are boundless. Make something. Be creative. Follow your interests wherever they lead because you'll have no trouble catching the next wave from any path you choose.