ClojureDart: Bringing Clojure to Dart and Flutter
ClojureDart, a port of the popular Clojure language, has been introduced by the consulting firm Tensegritics. This new tool aims to combine the expressive power of Clojure with Dart, Google’s language designed for modern web and mobile development. By compiling Clojure code to Dart, ClojureDart enables developers to target mobile and desktop platforms using Flutter, Google’s cross-platform UI toolkit.
Aiming for Cross-Platform Development
The primary vision behind ClojureDart is to empower developers to build multi-platform applications from a single codebase, leveraging the strengths of Dart and Flutter. While the concept is promising, the project remains a work in progress. Tensegritics has acknowledged that certain features are incomplete or missing entirely, but they encourage adventurous developers to explore the framework and provide feedback to refine its capabilities.
Current Limitations and Future Potential
As of now, ClojureDart is functional but lacks some key features, including a REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) and support for multi-methods and sorted collections. These limitations mean that while the framework can be used for experimentation and initial development, it might not yet be suitable for large-scale production applications. Nonetheless, its current state offers enough functionality for “bravest Clojurists” to experiment and start contributing to its evolution.
Getting Started with ClojureDart
The source code for ClojureDart is available on GitHub, where developers can find detailed instructions for setting up and integrating it with Dart and Flutter. As this project develops, it has the potential to provide a powerful new option for developers who enjoy the simplicity and expressiveness of Clojure while taking advantage of Dart’s robust ecosystem and Flutter’s multi-platform capabilities. For now, ClojureDart represents an exciting step toward expanding Clojure’s reach into mobile and desktop development.