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POIs functional Clojure or imperative Groovy more readable?
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  1. POIs functional Clojure or imperative Groovy more readable?
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    copied!<p>OK, no cheating now.</p> <p>No, really, take a minute or two and try this out.</p> <p>What does "positions" do?</p> <p>Edit: simplified according to cgrand's suggestion.</p> <pre><code>(defn redux [[current next] flag] [(if flag current next) (inc next)]) (defn positions [coll] (map first (reductions redux [1 2] (map = coll (rest coll))))) </code></pre> <p>Now, how about this version?</p> <pre><code>def positions(coll) { def (current, next) = [1, 1] def previous = coll[0] coll.collect { current = (it == previous) ? current : next next++ previous = it current } } </code></pre> <p>I'm learning Clojure and I'm loving it, because I've always enjoyed functional programming. It took me longer to come up with the Clojure solution, but I enjoyed having to <i>think</i> of an elegant solution. The Groovy solution is alright, but I'm at the point where I find this type of imperative programming <i>boring</i> and mechanical. After 12 years of Java, I feel in a rut and functional programming with Clojure is the boost I needed.</p> <p>Right, get to the point. Well, I have to be honest and say that I wonder if I'll understand the Clojure code when I go back to it months later. Sure I could comment the heck out of it, but I don't need to comment my Java code to understand it.</p> <p>So my question is: is it a question of getting more used to functional programming patterns? Are functional programming gurus reading this code and finding it a breeze to understand? Which version did <i>you</i> find easier to understand?</p> <p>Edit: what this code does is calculate the positions of players according to their points, while keep track of those who are tied. For example:</p> <pre><code> Pos Points 1. 36 1. 36 1. 36 4. 34 5. 32 5. 32 5. 32 8. 30 </code></pre>
 

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