I am learning Clojure and I really am loving some of its features. The time is coming to think of some real "pet projects" and I realize I'm not sure how to actually use Clojure.
I see many web and templating frameworks (e.g. Compojure), but somehow I'm in doubt on whether it's worth it. I feel that in the long run it can't serve the needs of real world applications which you address with Spring, Hibernate and some pieces of the Java EE stack.
On the other hand, I see great potential in the concurrency features but I'm short on ideas on how to really use them.
Enough background, my questions are:
- What are the feasible applications of Clojure and functional programming? What idea for a pet project can you suggest which wouldn't be rewriting the stuff I did with OO/Java EE into different syntax? I'm looking for something what really exploits Clojure's potential and leads to a solution which feels a lot better (not just in syntax) than OO/structural programming.
- Is it common, or at least reasonable, to mix Clojure and Java? I mean either of using Clojure for tiny libraries in 95% Java projects, or building Java apps on top of the core written in Clojure.
Edit: Thanks for all the great answers. They're all really inspiring. So if you have anything else to add, go ahead and don't be put off by the fact that one has been accepted.