Hi, I’m Chris - first post on this forum, been lurking a while though.
I found out about Phoenix through Hacker News. From there, I started having a dabble, realised it was actually pretty complicated if you don’t understand the Elixir syntax, and then resolved to learning the basics first
The way I’ve been learning Elixir is primarily through two books:
Programming Elixir: Functional |> Concurrent |> Pragmatic |> Fun
Introducing Elixir: Getting Started in Functional Programming
Book learning is all good, but I knew I needed to get some hands on. It turns out, as soon as I did, well… I didn’t quite understand everything as much as I had assumed
Anyway, finding challenges to solve as a beginner is really hard. I have some problems I want to address but they are require a fundamental grasp of the core concepts.
One way I found I quickly learned Node was through Node School.
I searched for something similar in Elixir, and found this:
I am only on the third lesson (word count), but it’s been really helpful so far. I reckon by the time I’ve got through even 50% of the lessons I will be fairly competent in the basics of language, ready to start working on my ‘bespoke’ problems with some level of confidence.
That said - is anyone aware of any other ‘challenge’ / Elixir exercises ? I love learning like this, and the more options the better.
FYI: Études for Elixir (github, o’reilly, eBook) is kind of the exercise book for Introducing Elixir - though I suspect that the exercises are far more basic than what you get over on exercism.io.
Seems Introducing Elixir is getting a second edition end of this year.
The exercism exercises are really challenging me so far. I am thoroughly enjoying solving the problems, and I genuinely feel like I’m learning a lot - about the syntax, and how to apply it to in solving the problems. Awesome resource.
I’ll check out Etude’s after this. I did see that originally - a few weeks back when I started looking into Elixir more seriously - but the title sounded at the very least “intermediate”.
Elixir School is a great resource, but I caution folks using it to learn the ins and outs. For me, it’s value has been more of a reference - it is clear, concise, and built for folks that already know the concept, but may just be looking for a refresher on syntax.
I will say that Sean Callan was at Elixir / Phoenix / Nerves Open Camp and said that the project has plans to add a lot more features. No word on timing on that. (Personally, I really enjoy the project’s current state - it’s just what I need).
I read in one thread about using new web frameworks in polish programmers forum about Elixir and Phoenix and I had no idea what’s Elixir or Phoenix, so I checked it out. This post change my life
I signed up for both sites this morning, looking forward to going through the content over the weekend. Please thank Daniel for me. His blog is really awesome too.
