ClojureScript up and running - book review.

Disclaimer: I got this book as part of the bloggers review program at O’Reilly.

<img class=“img-float-right” src=”/images/posts/clojurescript-up-and-running.gif” border=“0″ alt=“ClojureScript up and running – book cover”/>

I really like the up and running series from O’Reilly and this book is not the exception.

The authors, Stuart Sierra“http://www.stuartsierra.com: and “Luke VanderHart , don’t waste your time and get right away on how to setup your development environment to start working with ClojureScript.

There is a very good chapter on the compilation process and the relation with the Google Closure Compiler. It’s a very good chapter that together with chapter 7 will help you to write (and compile) code the proper way to avoid hours of debugging when something doesn’t work as expected.

There is a very thorough exploration of common constructs and data structures and (when relevant) how they are implemented on JavaScript.

Chapter 9, in where they explore the development process and work-flow when working with the language is very interesting, specially the section that deals with the browser REPL.

Should I buy it?

I think the book will be very helpful for anybody that is considering ClojureScript to decide if it’s the right choice.

There are lots of little nuggets of information that deal with internals and caveats that I found very informative.

In the other hand if you want to learn the language this book will serve as a good introduction but may felt a bit short, specially on the examples use cases side of things and you may want to complement it with another book.