What is my favourite Clojure IDE?

Choosing the right IDE is not easy :) This is an evergreen step you always meet when you start learning a new programming language.

I'm not a novice programmer, I have my favourite IDE and I would like very much to continue with that, but at the same time I completely ignore what I need, in terms of capabilities, features that are useful for Clojure.

After several years of experience in Java, I can say I know what I want from a (Java) IDE. I'm a big fan of Eclipse, I love the way it helps and assists me in writing code. In the past, I tried a lot of IDEs: Allaire Kawa (I know, I'm old), VisualCafè, JBuilder, Fortè, IBM Visual Age for Java, NetBeans, IntelliJ and finally Eclipse.

Although there was a time I was impressed by the power of the "refactoring"  capabilities of Intellij, I can say I always have been a faithful follower of Eclipse.

So, coming back to our topic, after a quick look at clojure.org, I decided to start trying these IDEs:

• Eclipse, of course ;) with Counterclockwise   
• Intellij IDEA with Cursive

Nothing special motivated my choice: simply, they are the two IDEs I already know among all those provided in the "Getting started" page of the Clojure website. Later I will try also the other suggestions.

For Eclipse, things have been very easy because the Counterclockwise plugin  can be directly found in the Eclipse Marketplace...just a matter of a couple of clicks.

IntelliJ requires just a little additional step because Cursive is available in a software repository that is not included in the default list. I won't write here the instructions because the Cursive website has a good step-by-step guide.

Both of them seem good, but again, it's just a perception, so I will write code using both of them and in the meantime I will put a first entry in my sticky note:

• TODO

  What is my favourite IDE for Clojure?