Why Elixir Matters: A Genealogy of Functional Programming - Osa Gaius

Members of the Elixir community often receive the question: “why should we use Elixir?” The answer to this nuanced question remains elusive, and this talk argues that the answer is not primarily technical. This talk argues that answering this question, as a community, will define the success or failure of the language. This talk presents an approach to answering this question by exploring Elixir’s place in the history of functional programming. In particular, it provides an analysis of why functional languages like Elixir fail to garner widespread adoption and diverse communities. Secondarily, it takes the position that Elixir’s utilization of the Erlang virtual machine, is both an advantage and disadvantage. More importantly, this talk offers a way forward by highlighting approaches that the community can take to avoid the mistakes historically made by the functional programming community.

Audience: Beginner

All Talks Link: 0) Lonestar ElixirConf 2018 Talks