Clojure is a great language that has an achilles heel right now.
The other thing is that you cannot learn Clojure without learning Java, despite various claims; the atrocious error messages are just the tip of the iceberg there (and I say this as a professional Java developer).
Embracing the host (the JVM and Java) provides tremendous leverage in tooling, performance, and reach but has the corresponding tradeoffs of leaking that host environment throughout various parts of the stack. This is just something to accept and manage - the compromise is made.
I personally do not think the error messages are "atrocious". Some error messages are confusing or lack context. There are many tickets in progress to improve those and they continue to get better over time. This is an area we continue to work on within the language.
I'd say that might be moderated if you're got a good grounding in Lisp. I've been able to get a good distance basically learned nothing more about Java that what it took from C++ ... but that knowledge I brought to the table might enough to satisfy your claim in essence.
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The other thing is that you cannot learn Clojure without learning Java, despite various claims; the atrocious error messages are just the tip of the iceberg there (and I say this as a professional Java developer).
Embracing the host (the JVM and Java) provides tremendous leverage in tooling, performance, and reach but has the corresponding tradeoffs of leaking that host environment throughout various parts of the stack. This is just something to accept and manage - the compromise is made.
I personally do not think the error messages are "atrocious". Some error messages are confusing or lack context. There are many tickets in progress to improve those and they continue to get better over time. This is an area we continue to work on within the language.
I'd say that might be moderated if you're got a good grounding in Lisp. I've been able to get a good distance basically learned nothing more about Java that what it took from C++ ... but that knowledge I brought to the table might enough to satisfy your claim in essence.