Here’s a quick, straightforward way to install Clojure on MacOS.
Install Java
First, you need the JDK. You can get that in a lot of ways. It’s nice to have a utility to help you manager versions of the Java JDK. Jabba is such a version manager. Install it with:
curl -sL https://github.com/shyiko/jabba/raw/master/install.sh | bash && . ~/.jabba/jabba.sh
Now with jabba, you can install the JDK. List what’s available with:
jabba ls-remote
Then choose one to install, such as:
jabba install openjdk@1.17.0
If you already have a JDK installed with jabba, switch to use it:
jabba use openjdk@1.17.0
Install Clojure
If you’re on Mac, you probably have brew installed. If not, get that. Then use brew to install Clojure:
brew install clojure/tools/clojure
Try it out
Now you should be able to start up a Clojure REPL with:
$ clojure
Clojure 1.11.1
user=> (+ 1 1)
2
Installed. Now go and wrap your life in parens.