Comment by upghost

That's a really interesting line of questioning! We have a mode called "embedded mode" where you run the python application first, THEN initialize the JVM and Clojure via the Python "javabridge" package. From there, you can start your Clojure REPL and experience both Clojure's IDE integrated REPL experience or the Python debugger, depending on how you set it up. This also allows you to run maximally complex Python applications and is the recommended approach for training ML robustly.

I also tend to live inside the debugger for some things but for other things I really enjoy the Clojure/lisp style "in editor evaluation" (where the result appears right after your cursor when you evaluate the S-expression).

The usescasses question is a good one. Python has some pretty good libraries. For one project, we have a (Clojure) ring server and GCP cloud resources. Using the Python GCP secret manager to access protected cloud resources allows me to have the same code in dev and prod with minimal configuration.

Also sometimes it's just political. Maybe your workplace is a Clojure/Java only shop -- in that case, sometimes you can make the case Python is "just a library" and get some cool toys, in other circumstances where its Python only you can at least dev using your lisp REPL.

So if that kind of thing sounds fun to you (and you like emacs) you'll like this. If that sounds like hell to you, then it is!! I really tried hard to optimize around "fun" for the API, but it's also really performant, and great fun for hacking.

In particular I really love doing silly stuff with Python LLMs in the Clojure REPL.

So, tl;dr, I'd say it is really great if you are a certain kind of hacker who wants all the most fun toys and as an added bonus it also works in production.