git-internals-pdf VS clojure-style-guide

For me the Peepcode Git Internals book was a great peek under the hood. I went from "Git has a lot of magical incantations" to "Git is pretty simple and I could probably build a version of it".

I generally recommend the Peepcode Git Internals book. The first half explains the internals of how Git works, and the second half is a command reference.

Once you get the hang of basic Git operations, you should look into how Git works under the hood. Git Internals helped me a lot on this.

I often recommend the Peepcode Git Internals book. The first half talks about how Git works internally. The second half is a "how to use Git" tutorial. I think understanding the internals (which aren't really that complicated) can really help to demystify Git.

Conceptually, Git's not really all that complicated. I always recommend people to read the Peepcode Git Internals book (originally $9, now free): https://github.com/pluralsight/git-internals-pdf/blob/master/drafts/peepcode-git.pdf

Check out this page if you haven't yet (alternatively, direct link to the PDF.) I hear it's all good, but the Understanding Git chapter is the one I'd specifically point you to.

Clojure developers also often make use of single-letter variable names, following conventions in `clojure.core`: https://guide.clojure.style/#idiomatic-names

My rule of thumb is to only use short names in the local scope of a function and have them follow conventions within the language community. Constrained like this, I see no harm in using them, since their meaning is clear within the context of their usage and there is usually no need to search for them. Of course, if the variable has a more specific meaning, I choose a more specific name.

Fixed link to that style guide entry: https://guide.clojure.style/#opt-commas-in-map-literals

Per that style guide, the above map would be formatted like this (on HN, just indent by two spaces):

  {:a 1

As for the broader question of Clojure style, there are style guides like https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide and tools like clj-kondo to help learn and reinforce important practices.

Basically, you learn the expected places to put whitespace, make sure to edit your code accordingly and all of the parens will be automatically closed and adjusted. Using parinfer—which you can also combine with the more traditional paredit—makes writing Clojure code a lot like writing Python.

Also, there are guidelines, the styleguide, clj-kondo, kibit etc. And if you don't review your interns/juniors code to teach them good practices - you're doing it wrong (well, this one is true for any practical PL out there).

Another good resource is https://guide.clojure.style/ -- the (unofficial) community style guide for Clojure.

It's not an answer to your question but i can refer you to https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide

The same could be said about the "Clojure Style Guide" from the Cider guy. As a matter of fact, there was an issue about it that was quickly declined https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide/issues/232

Formatting is not that great, see https://github.com/bbatsov/clojure-style-guide btw