% A Brief Beginner's Guide To Clojure
% John Gabriele
% 2016-06

by [John Gabriele](/index.html), last-modified: 2016-06
<img src="cat.jpg" style="padding: 6px; float: right">

*(using Clojure 1.8.0, Leiningen 2.6.1, and OpenJDK 8)*

The purpose of this brief guide is to provide new users with a
1000-meter view of [Clojure](http://clojure.org/) and its ecosystem,
including how to quickly get up and running.

This guide concerns the original, Java-based Clojure implementation
(though, there [are](http://clojure.org/about/clojurescript)
[others](http://clojure.org/about/clojureclr)).

It's not a Clojure language tutorial; there are a number of good ones
available elsewhere (linked to [later](docs-and-resources.html)).

Where it matters, the author (hi!) assumes you're using a
[Debian](http://www.debian.org/)-based
[GNU/Linux](http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html) distribution
with the usual [Bash
shell](http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/bash.html).

It's intended that the chapters of this guide be read in order.

This guide may contain errors. If you find any, or if you find
something missing that you wish someone had told you when you first
began using Clojure, or if you just spot something that's unclear,
clumsy, or too verbose (not including this sentence!), please [let me
know](mailto:jgabriele@fastmail.fm)!