Should we use Clojure with Quil?

[lpil]

Hey gang!

As stated in the pub, functional programming and Lisp are really cool. We could do this project with the Lisp dialect of Clojure and Quil, the Clojure bindings for processing.

I've set up the start of a Quil project in the subtrate-quil directory.

Pros

• We can modify sketches as they are running instead of closing and re-running the entire file (use :reload 'substrate.dynamic)
• We don't have to use the Processing language
• Dependency management from Leiningen
• We can opt out of the Processing editor and not become second class citizens
• We may possibly introduce some functional beauty into this circle of hackers
• Mad nerd cred

  Cons

• Probably a miserable experience if you're not into Lisp
• Probably a miserable experience if you're not into functional programming
• Probably a miserable experience if you're not the kind of guy who wears Linux tshirts in public
• We'll find it hard to get other people to contribute to the project due to the dominance of procedural style languages in this little group
• Using our particle library might be hard. Maybe. I don't know Clojure well enough to say.

Personally I'm favour. nerd cred :sunglasses:

[berkan]

Hey Louis

Excellent! I'm all in for the Clojure/Quil (though I'll mostly likely also continue playing around with the Processing version). And you're a star! - you've already prepared an example. Will try that out now.

(and yes, being able to work in repl is very important - i get bored quickly if i can't change something and see the result quickly :) )

[lpil]

Aye, there's no harm in doing both side by side. This is more of an exploratory project for me, I think.

I'm having a bit of a miserable time at the moment trying to get Minim, the Processing audio thingy, to work in Clojure/Quil at the moment. Unlike the graphical parts of Processing it doesn't seem to be included in Quil, so I'm working with the Java interop. I do not understand the Java interop. The fact that I really don't get Clojure state isn't helping either!

It seems a little silly using Minim when Clojure has Overtone.

Pros

• Much more powerful than Minim
• More well documented than Minim
• Easier to use
• No need for Java interop

Cons

• Adds the Supercollider synth engine as a dependency
• Adds the JACK audio server as a dependency on Linux. This can cause setup headaches as JACK and your system sounds (i.e. PulseAudio or similar) can fight over the audio device. I use an external audio interface to get around this. http://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html
• We will no longer be able to package the entire piece up into a JAR file for distribution as we have the dependency on Supercollider

I'm unsure really. It would be nice to be able to distribute it.

[lpil]

I've split the Clojure project into its own repo, creatively named "Reactant".

https://github.com/AVUIs/Reactant