:use is not encouraged anymore

[vemv]

Not like I wholeheartedly agree with that (the day we have even better tooling we'll be able to use :use liberally), but since Clojure 1.4 they are considered bad practice.

Surely it's worth reflecting this to some extent?

[bbatsov]

I'll add a note that use should be used sparingly. I guess most people do so anyways. Btw, I've missed the memo from Clojure 1.4 on the subject; can you point me to it?

[vemv]

In 1.4 the :refer clause was added to :require. Which can take an :all value (:require [my.lib :refer :all]) so :use only breaks uniformity, providing little value over :refer

Some rationale: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/clojure-dev/kbcI3bkJr_0

[drcode]

I'm not sure I agree that :use should be used sparingly. I use ":use" liberally, but only if I also use an ":only" (That sentence makes me chuckle...)

It seems to me the :use+:only combination is considered good form by many Clojurists.

[vemv]

It is good form, but it equals the combination of :require and :refer so there's no reason to keep using :use, afaik

[drcode]

vemv, you're right. I'm switching my own code to no longer use ":use".

Don't know how I missed the discussions on "refer"

[CampingScorpion]

I'm not sure if :use has been formally deprecated in 1.4, but has been considered bad style since 1.4.

[technomancy]

:use/:only is only suitable when you want to write backwards-compatible code with pre-1.4.

:refer/:all should only be used in a handful of places--the only widely-agreed place it's acceptable is in tests when bringing in the namespace under implementation and clojure.test.

[Gonzih]

I love refer in require that was introduced in 1.4. It just so much cleaner.
http://clojuredocs.org/clojure_core/1.2.0/clojure.core/ns#example_936

I think that style guide should include information that :require with :refer/:all is more idiomatic than plain :use.

[ToBeReplaced]

Shouldn't it really be using lists instead of vectors as well? I've never seen code this way, but I think it makes more sense because multiple keywords can be passed to the library name.

    (ns examples.ns
      (:refer-clojure :exclude [next replace remove])
      (:require (clojure (string :as string
                                 :refer [capitalize])
                         (set :as set)
                         (zip :refer :all)
                         (xml :refer :all))
                (clojure.java (shell :as sh)))
      (:import java.util.Date
               java.text.SimpleDateFormat
               (java.util.concurrent Executors
                                     LinkedBlockingQueue)))
    ``` 

[mjwillson]

It'd be nice if there was some equivalent for the :exclude option to use which worked for require :refer. Anyone know what the official line is on this?

[bbatsov]

Fixed with #66.