I agree with some of the previous suggestions that something including Java interop would be a good idea. That should give Java programmers warm fuzzy feelings and at least pique their curiosity enough to give Clojure a more detailed look later. Four minutes is such an extremely short amount of time that it certainly makes this a challenge.
Most of the topics that make Clojure so interesting are also pretty dense. That being said, it wouldn't be bad to hit things at a high level and leave people hungry for more. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to mention STM and explain very briefly that it uses similar technology to Oracle and Postgres to maintain consistency across threads. Agents are also a huge feature that can be summarized well enough in a few short sentences to make someone say, "COOL!". The ants demo is incredibly cool, but my fear would be that an ultra- condensed explanation wouldn't do it the justice it deserves (maybe I'm wrong)? Something really easy for people to get might be, "you can compile this to a class, distribute as a jar, and make it part of your toolbox right now." Having done a lot of Java programming, even simple features of Clojure are really impressive and appealing. Having a language that can outperform most interpreted languages and offer me heterogenous sequences and type inference is a huge feature. Higher order functions wouldn't be bad to mention either since Java doesn't have them. Macros are incredibly powerful, but again, I fear that with the limited time, quite a few in the audience might underestimate what they can provide. One quick question: is anybody going to get this on video? I'd really like to see how it turns out. Travis On May 18, 8:36 am, Rich Hickey <richhic...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'll be doing two sessions involving Clojure at JavaOne this June. One > is a traditional talk (TS-4164), the other is as a participant in the > Script Bowl 2009: A Scripting Languages Shootout (PAN-5348). > > The 'script' bowl is a friendly competition, basically a place to show > off your language and seek audience acclaim. > > "Scripting language gurus returning from 2008 are Groovy, JRuby, > Jython, and Scala. This year there is also a new kid on the block: > Clojure." > > There are two very brief rounds, 4 minutes per language each round . > > round 1: Core language and libraries round (show something really cool > with the core language and libraries) > > round 2: Community round (show some significant community > contributions) > > Note there is no comparative aspect, each language presenter talks up > their own language and the audience decides, so it's not an > opportunity to draw contrasts explicitly. It's about being pro- > Clojure, not anti- anything else. > > The audience is Java developers, many of whom will have never seen > Clojure or any Lisp. > > I'd appreciate some suggestions *and help* preparing demos for the > Script Bowl. What (that could be demonstrated in 4 minutes) would make > you think - 'Clojure looks cool, I need to look into it'? What > community contribution(s) should we showcase? > > Thanks, > > Rich --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
