For those not sure what Elixir is, think of it like this:
elixir : erlang vm (BEAM) :: clojure : jvm
Elixir's syntax is heavily influenced by Ruby but its semantics and structure is very reminiscent of Clojure. Like Clojure you are constantly reminded you live on JVM, with Elixir you are constantly reminded that Erlang is under the covers and thats OKAY.
Its really great stuff and the creator José Valim has really put thought, love and care into every part of the project. I highly suggest you take a look, you might be surprised at what you find.
100% agreed. I've been looking at Elixir occasionally for a year or so... It's getting better and better. It certainly takes a lot from Clojure, but with a real Erlang / OTP twist. (It also recognises that "homoiconicity" doesn't always mean lisp). Elixir's Design Goals are stated here for those who've missed them: http://elixir-lang.org/blog/2013/08/08/elixir-design-goals/
What is the advantage over Erlang? I guess this gives the syntactic sugar on the top of Erlang but I am not sure if this takes away the good parts of the language (pattern matching etc.) as well. Anyways, Erlang has a steep learning curve but if you invest the time it is pretty rewarding.
Been using Elixir for a new project and it's really nice.
For me it's not so much about bringing a nicer syntax to Erlang (Erlang's syntax is very nice once you get used to it, except for single assignment IMO. I'd prefer it if Elixir had taken Erlang's syntax and added support for rebinding variables and macros) but about tooling (mix, the build tool absolutely rocks) and libraries (e.g. take a look at http://github.com/elixir-lang/ecto).
I would love to contribute to Elixir, but jumping right into Elixir's issue list on Github to fix the bug there is a bit too hard for me. I wish there was some resources getting us familiarized with Elixir code base, and leading us more easily into contributing to Elixir, just like the The Eudyptula Challenge for Linux Kernel (http://eudyptula-challenge.org/). Or is there already this kind of resource?
i've been playing with elixir for a little while. i'm still wrapping my head around all its metaprogramming goodness, but so far it's been a fun journey.
I really like Elixir's syntax and really want to get into Erlang. I can't wait until I have some free time soon. Any good resources other than Elixir Sips?
If you are having trouble hop onto irc freenode #elixir-lang and ask for help! Always someone willing to offer guidance, including the creators and some of the Erlang contributors!
It's been used with some internal projects at companies and SOME companies have started building systems with Elixir as a "nicer erlang" nothing major that I know of yet.
The plan is to have v1 happen early this year and after that we'll start seeing more products being built with Elixir.
But really any project using Erlang can and probably will add some Elixir to its code base at some point. The languages complete interop between each other by way of sharing BEAM byte code.
I've been involved in the Rust community, a considerably larger, more active and more mature community, and I would consider a RustConf still a little premature.
Is there really enough interest in it? How many people are expected to attend? How many are needed to attend to break even in some manner?
It is hard to compare communities of programming languages (even though I would be extremely interested in such data!). The only data I have seen around is this graph comparing the popularity on Github and the number of issues in Stack Overflow: http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2014/01/22/language-rankings-1-14...
Note Julia, Rust and Elixir are quite close to each other (which is nice considering they are about the same age). So, based on this data, I wouldn't classify Rust's community as considerably larger than Elixir's. Although Mozilla definitely helps Rust get some exposure!
Also I believe Elixir is more stable than Rust since Elixir runs on top of an existing Virtual Machine which helps us bootstrap the ecosystem and also skip a lot of "infrastructure work". We have also been avoiding breaking changes and doing deprecation cycles for almost a year now (sometimes it is unavoidable though) and Elixir has already 3 books in development (by O'Reilly, Manning and Pragmatic Programmers) with Elixir v1.0 planned for this summer.
Just to be clear, I am not knocking on Rust, just assessing the development stage of both languages (and please correct me if I got something wrong).
I am not sure about the conference details though, as I am just helping promote it, but wasn't there something like 20 or 30 people at the first RubyConf in US? We all need to start somewhere. :)
[+] [-] peregrine|12 years ago|reply
elixir : erlang vm (BEAM) :: clojure : jvm
Elixir's syntax is heavily influenced by Ruby but its semantics and structure is very reminiscent of Clojure. Like Clojure you are constantly reminded you live on JVM, with Elixir you are constantly reminded that Erlang is under the covers and thats OKAY.
Its really great stuff and the creator José Valim has really put thought, love and care into every part of the project. I highly suggest you take a look, you might be surprised at what you find.
[+] [-] cursork|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leccine|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SingAlong|12 years ago|reply
Easy to configure and the deploys are pretty fast.
Disclaimer: I wrote it
[+] [-] MartinMond|12 years ago|reply
For me it's not so much about bringing a nicer syntax to Erlang (Erlang's syntax is very nice once you get used to it, except for single assignment IMO. I'd prefer it if Elixir had taken Erlang's syntax and added support for rebinding variables and macros) but about tooling (mix, the build tool absolutely rocks) and libraries (e.g. take a look at http://github.com/elixir-lang/ecto).
[+] [-] jw2013|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peregrine|12 years ago|reply
Another way is to jump on irc freenode #elixir-lang and ask :).
Another way is to use it, report bugs, poor error messages or unclear documentation, and maybe fix it.
I did the later and the Elixir developers were super helpful and responsive.
[+] [-] sr-ix|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ia|12 years ago|reply
also, jose valim must have clones of himself.
[+] [-] ch4s3|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peregrine|12 years ago|reply
The elixir-lang getting started guide covers a ton as well.
I'd also highly suggest working through http://learnyousomeerlang.com/ as almost all of the concepts apply to elixir.
If you are having trouble hop onto irc freenode #elixir-lang and ask for help! Always someone willing to offer guidance, including the creators and some of the Erlang contributors!
[+] [-] notduncansmith|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] devanti|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peregrine|12 years ago|reply
The plan is to have v1 happen early this year and after that we'll start seeing more products being built with Elixir.
[+] [-] rubiquity|12 years ago|reply
But really any project using Erlang can and probably will add some Elixir to its code base at some point. The languages complete interop between each other by way of sharing BEAM byte code.
[+] [-] myth_drannon|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrismorgan|12 years ago|reply
I've been involved in the Rust community, a considerably larger, more active and more mature community, and I would consider a RustConf still a little premature.
Is there really enough interest in it? How many people are expected to attend? How many are needed to attend to break even in some manner?
[+] [-] josevalim|12 years ago|reply
Note Julia, Rust and Elixir are quite close to each other (which is nice considering they are about the same age). So, based on this data, I wouldn't classify Rust's community as considerably larger than Elixir's. Although Mozilla definitely helps Rust get some exposure!
Also I believe Elixir is more stable than Rust since Elixir runs on top of an existing Virtual Machine which helps us bootstrap the ecosystem and also skip a lot of "infrastructure work". We have also been avoiding breaking changes and doing deprecation cycles for almost a year now (sometimes it is unavoidable though) and Elixir has already 3 books in development (by O'Reilly, Manning and Pragmatic Programmers) with Elixir v1.0 planned for this summer.
Just to be clear, I am not knocking on Rust, just assessing the development stage of both languages (and please correct me if I got something wrong).
I am not sure about the conference details though, as I am just helping promote it, but wasn't there something like 20 or 30 people at the first RubyConf in US? We all need to start somewhere. :)