So Code.load_file didn’t work, but I found a solution:
- create a helper module (
cd ~ && vim my_helpers.ex) - compile the helper module (
elixirc my_helpers.ex) - add an import statement to
.iex.exs(import MyHelpers) - test in
iex
What happens is that iex auto-loads the compiled beam file - then you can auto-import the helper module in .iex.exs.
You can tweak the beam-path by hacking the iex shell script (at /usr/local/bin/iex).
@gregvaughn thanks for your suggestions! 
