Clojure syntax

Clojure is percieved as having an abundance of (), the symbols that represent a list.

As Clojure is a LISP (List Processing) language then everything is written in the form of a list. This makes Clojure very powerful and also easier to read.

Using a list structure also demonstrates the data-centric nature of Clojure. Every item in the list has a value, with the first item evaluated by a function call.

Hint::Parens everywhere

The seemingly abundance of () can be confusing until its realized there are fewer “special characters” in Clojure than other languages. Clojure aware editors support matching parens, adding a closed paren when typing an open paren, ensuring it is easy to write correctly formed Clojure.

Syntax differences are a trivial reason to avoid trying Clojure. Syntax aware editors significantly reduce typing by automatically closing parenthesis and eliminating errors due to missing delimiters (ie. no more errors due to missing ; in C-based languages)

Prefix notation

Instead of having a mix of notations like in many other languages, Clojure uses pre-fix notation entirely.

In Clojure operators are applied uniformly and there is no room for ambiguity:

  1.     (+ 1 2 3 5 8 13 21)
  2.     (+ 1 2 (- 4 1) 5 (* 2 4) 13 (/ 42 2))
  3.     (str "Clojure" " uses " "prefix notation")

In Java and other C-based languages you have to explicitly add operators everywhere and there can be a mixture of notations

  1.     (1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 8 + 13 + 21);
  2.     (1 + 2 + (- 4 1) + 5 + (* 2 4) + 13 + (/ 42 2));
  3.     StringBuffer mystring = new StringBuffer("C-based languages" + " mix " + "notation");
  4.     x+=1;
  5.     x++;
  6.     x--;
  7.     x+=y;
  8.     x-=y;
  9.     x*=y;
  10.     x/=y;

References