Book recommendation for beginners

[gavriil07]

Hi guys,

I have some money to spare and want to by an introductory book about Elixir(I have already a previous experience with haskell, so FP it’s not foreign ground to me). I see there are quite a few alternatives:

1. Elixir in Action by Sasa Juric
2. Programming Elixir 1.6 by Dave Thomas
3. The Little Elixir and OTP Guidebook by Tan Wei Hao

So which one do you recommend to begin with?

Thanks

[kokolegorille]

It is difficult to compare, because they are all excellent resources…

As a personal opinion, I would rate their difficulties from simplier to more difficult as 2, 1, 3

But it is just a personal taste. And the order I read them was 3, 1, 2. I took the hard way, just to understand first what OTP is all about.

Elixir in Action will soon be updated to latest version, You might consider waiting for the new release.

In doubt, read them all

[chrismcg]

If I could only pick one I’d go with Elixir in Action as it really gets into OTP. If you’re somewhat familiar with FP and other languages I think you’d get more about what makes BEAM different from that book. It is being updated to current Elixir, see here for more details What should I keep in mind if I'm using Elixir in Action today?

It’s always worth keeping an eye out for Manning deal of the days and discount codes

(Disclaimer I haven’t read the Little Elixir book so can’t say whether it’s worth picking up first or not).

[kokolegorille]

The Little Elixir and OTP Guidebook focus more on OTP. That is why there is no introductory chapter on what is a list, what is a map kind of thing.

You start by implementing your own version of gen_server, supervisor, learning processes, monitors, links, then You go into poolboy architecture…

[AstonJ]

I read PE and EIA concurrently and I highly recommend others do the same

I haven’t read Ben’s book yet but I imagine you’d want to read that after learning the language fundamentals (so after those two books).

Here are my reviews:

Programming Elixir (Pragprog)

Just finished this book - loved it! I’ve been reading it concurrently with Elixir In Action: I read 50% of Programming Elixir first (the language bits) and then jumped to Elixir in Action because it covers quite a bit of the same ground (especially the language basics, albeit at a faster pace) - this suits me perfectly because it saves me having to write notes; I like going over things to help ‘repeat and reinforce’ what I’ve learnt. These two books are a fantastic combo if that is your p…

Elixir In Action (Manning)

Just finished this book - loved it! I’ve been reading it concurrently with Programming Elixir I read 50% of Programming Elixir first (the language bits) and then jumped to Elixir in Action because it covers much of the same ground on the language side of things. This suited me perfectly because it saved me having to write notes (I find going over things is a great way to ‘repeat and reinforce’ what I’ve learnt). These two books are a fantastic combo if this is your preferred learning styl…

Also for any beginners reading this, also check out:

Learn Functional Programming with Elixir (Pragprog)

[image] by Ulisses Almeida Elixir’s straightforward syntax and this guided tour give you a clean, simple path to learn modern functional programming techniques. No previous functional programming experience required! This book walks you through the right concepts at the right pace, as you explore immutable values and explicit data transformation, functions, modules, recursive functions, pattern matching, high-order functions, polymorphism, and failure handling, all while avoiding side effect…