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+++ title = "Web Development with Clojure: Build Bulletproof Web Apps with Less Code - Dmitri Sotnikov" date = 2017-06-22
[taxonomies] tags = ["books", "dmitri sotnikov", "reviews", "clojure", "web development", "it", "2 stars"] +++
GoodReads Summary: Modern web development needs modern tools. Web Development With Clojure shows you how to apply Clojure programming fundamentals to build real-world solutions. You'll develop all the pieces of a full web application in this powerful language. If you already have some familiarity with Clojure, you'll learn how to put it to serious practical use. If you're new to the language, the book provides just enough Clojure to get down to business.
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First of all, this book suffers from the same mistakes every single Lisp-like language book I've read: They throw a truck at you, then slowly, while you're being crushed by it, explain each part that creates a truck -- In other words, they throw a large piece of code at you and then slowly explain each part of it.
Even worst, in the last parts, it's basically "here is truck, take it" -- very little explanation about the code itself, just "we'll do this" and code. What the pieces of code mean, that's entirely to you.
Another problem: no tests. The author prefers the REPL approach, which is okay for little projects, but for projects that should last longer than a weekend project. No only that, but even the tests are wrong, because it mocks the database -- Database is part of your project so it should be tested along all the other tests.
And, on top of that, there is a REST server with sessions, and a lot of code just to keep the frontend session in sync with the server session. That's actually not how a REST server works.
And while I usually don't comment the technology behind the book (because it's not the author's creation), I really have to ask if Clojure is the right tool for web servers. I mean, a lot about Clojure is about immutability and a lot about the shown code is forcing mutability -- one function even is composed with nothing but functions that force mutability.
So, not only the book itself doesn't give a clear picture about web development in Clojure, the language itself doesn't appear appropriate for such task.