title: Why build a Clojure string using literal characters?
body: <p>I was reading some code just now, and I ran across <a href="https://github.com/clojure/core.cache/blob/dc1275950fb27439251e0719da9eff40c81f8006/src/main/clojure/clojure/core/cache.clj#L244" rel="nofollow">this line</a>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>(str cache \, \space lru \, \space tick \, \space limit)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is odd to me.  Consecutive literal characters are used, instead of a string containing those characters.  I would expect something more like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>(str cache ", " lru ", " tick ", " limit)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But this is in <a href="https://github.com/clojure/core.cache" rel="nofollow">a core library</a> written by some venerable Clojure veterans, which makes me think that maybe there's a reason.  What's the reason?  Performance?  Or what?</p>