After a few weekends exploring Clojure I came up with this program. It allows you to move a little rectangle in a window. Here's the code:

(import java.awt.Color)
(import java.awt.Dimension)
(import java.awt.event.KeyListener)
(import javax.swing.JFrame)
(import javax.swing.JPanel)

(def x (ref 0))
(def y (ref 0))

(def panel
  (proxy [JPanel KeyListener] []
    (getPreferredSize [] (Dimension. 100 100))
    (keyPressed [e]
      (let [keyCode (.getKeyCode e)]
        (if (== 37 keyCode) (dosync (alter x dec))
        (if (== 38 keyCode) (dosync (alter y dec))
        (if (== 39 keyCode) (dosync (alter x inc))
        (if (== 40 keyCode) (dosync (alter y inc))
                            (println keyCode)))))))
    (keyReleased [e])
    (keyTyped [e])))

(doto panel
  (.setFocusable true)
  (.addKeyListener panel))

(def frame (JFrame. "Test"))
(doto frame
    (.add panel)
    (.pack)
    (.setDefaultCloseOperation JFrame/EXIT_ON_CLOSE)
    (.setVisible true))

(defn drawRectangle [p]
  (doto (.getGraphics p)  
    (.setColor (java.awt.Color/WHITE))
    (.fillRect 0 0 100 100)
    (.setColor (java.awt.Color/BLUE))
    (.fillRect (* 10 (deref x)) (* 10 (deref y)) 10 10)))

(loop []
  (drawRectangle panel)
  (Thread/sleep 10)
  (recur))

Despite being an experienced C++ programmer I found it very challenging to write even a simple application in a language that uses a radically different style than what I'm used to.

On top of that, this code probably sucks. I suspect the globalness of the various values is a bad thing. It's also not clear to me if it's appropriate to use references here for the x and y values.

Any hints for improving this code are welcome.