I think you might be overstating the syntax switching problems. The syntax of earlier Lisps is insanely simple, and Clojure only a little more so.
I base this in part on the very popular Python language's use of white space, which to a seasoned Lisper looks very familiar.
As for the focus on "diversity", I submit it might be misplaced at the moment, especially to the extent AlwaysBCoding's complaints are valid. To the extent Clojure is not making the sale to a target audience that's already
98%" heteronormative eeeevil white male (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7581226), how likely are you to entice those outside that demographic? In fact, if you view Clojure as an experiment that may fail, are you doing them a favor by evangelizing it to them?
(I'd argue yes, since it's probably one of the easiest functional programming (FP) languages to learn, and it really helps to have FP in your toolkit. But I'd argue SICP or something gentler with multipardigm Scheme would be a better approach if you're just trying to accomplish that sort of thing.)
The first two ClojureBridge (http://clojurebridge.org) workshops sold out quickly and many more cities are working on events in the coming months. In addition, 100s of people have signed up to help or attend on the mailing list. There is clearly demand in diverse communities to learn programming via Clojure.
I don't think any serious student should expect to learn only one language. Clojure can teach concepts that any learner will find valuable in applying to other languages. In particular, I think that clear separation of values, identity, and state avoids many kinds of complication in learning how to program that are introduced early with other languages.
Comments
I think you might be overstating the syntax switching problems. The syntax of earlier Lisps is insanely simple, and Clojure only a little more so.
I base this in part on the very popular Python language's use of white space, which to a seasoned Lisper looks very familiar.
As for the focus on "diversity", I submit it might be misplaced at the moment, especially to the extent AlwaysBCoding's complaints are valid. To the extent Clojure is not making the sale to a target audience that's already 98%" heteronormative eeeevil white male (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7581226), how likely are you to entice those outside that demographic? In fact, if you view Clojure as an experiment that may fail, are you doing them a favor by evangelizing it to them?
(I'd argue yes, since it's probably one of the easiest functional programming (FP) languages to learn, and it really helps to have FP in your toolkit. But I'd argue SICP or something gentler with multipardigm Scheme would be a better approach if you're just trying to accomplish that sort of thing.)
The first two ClojureBridge (http://clojurebridge.org) workshops sold out quickly and many more cities are working on events in the coming months. In addition, 100s of people have signed up to help or attend on the mailing list. There is clearly demand in diverse communities to learn programming via Clojure.
I don't think any serious student should expect to learn only one language. Clojure can teach concepts that any learner will find valuable in applying to other languages. In particular, I think that clear separation of values, identity, and state avoids many kinds of complication in learning how to program that are introduced early with other languages.