An idiomatic data persistence system in Clojure

Abstract

Even though Lisp and functional programming style were one of the first paradigms used to solve standard computer science problems since early 60s[1] and since its ideas and principles (even object system — CLOS[2]) are merged into so-called “mainstream languages”, lately it was considered weird and esoteric what kept it far away from active usage in today’s massive software industry. In 2007 Rich Hickey invented a new dialect of Lisp — Clojure[3] which embraces functional programming and could be hosted on mainstream platforms such as JVM. This invention brings Lisp back to the eyeshot of programmers and companies, much closer to the industry. Since Lisp was somewhat absent from the “big scene” its descendant Clojure lacks some tools which are established as standards within programmer communities. One of missing tools is idiomatic data persistence framework which will be presented in this paper. This deficiency has been recognized in functional programming more then two decades ago by Hammond[4] et al. but with the expansion of new functional languages this topic is becoming active again.