Elixir language reference

These seem to have all the reference documentation:

http://elixir-lang.org/docs/stable/elixir/Kernel.html

From any page of the elixir documentation you can access the Pages section of the documentation, it has 5 or 6 subsections, which one can use as ref-man, also some modules do hide some ref-man style knowledge.

What is not available (but you probably ask for) is a refman as you are used to from erlang, which you could use as a formal spec as well.

Yes, but these document the libraries but not really the language itself, either syntax or semantics.

Yes, exactly. While the erlang documentation has its faults, it is very good as a reference manual, both for syntax and semantics. And not just the language but the OTP system and libraries as well.

From the IEx shell, it is possible to obtain a concise list of spec and type info per module, via the commands ‘t’ and ‘s’:

t Enum
@type t() :: Enumerable.t()
@type element() :: any()
@type index() :: non_neg_integer()
@type default() :: any()

s Stream
@spec chunk(Enumerable.t(), pos_integer(), pos_integer(), Enumerable.t() | nil) :: Enumerable.t()
@spec drop(Enumerable.t(), non_neg_integer()) :: Enumerable.t()
@spec flat_map(Enumerable.t(), (element() -> Enumerable.t())) :: Enumerable.t()
@spec map(Enumerable.t(), (element() -> any())) :: Enumerable.t()

---- although I am not sure if this is what you are asking for.

I guess @rvirding’s point is about syntax and semantics. There is no reference guide for it at all, just some tutorial guides.

I was wondering the same thing, for similar reasons that @rvirding mentioned.

When I began programming some years ago, I would use books, tutorials and fragments of information that often were either too verbose or not sufficiently to-the-point (when not flat-out misleading), when I wanted to gain some in-depth understand a specific point in the language.

Ever since I learned formal language and compiler design a couple of years ago, I tend to first search the formal spec of a language when I want to understand how a certain feature of the language works, as it is both fairly complete and fairly concise.

I am fairly new to Elixir, and having such reference could speed up my learning and understanding of specific features.

I also consider suggesting the professor who teaches distributed programming at my local university (currently taught with Erlang) to try using Elixir as an experiment for a semester. I heard that a lot of the students are struggling with the Erlang syntax and am hoping that by using Elixir they can spend more time studying the principles of distributed programming, since I, too, find its syntax and behavior much easier to understand.

Sort of, it’s a start anyway. Though I personally don’t like reading it in the shell; same with module and function documentation. At least not long long long descriptions.

@rvirding can you be more precise on what you want? I will be glad to write the missing pieces. If you have examples of other languages, that would help.

About syntax, there is no reference, and I could write one up.

About the language semantics, most of it is defined in Kernel.SpecialForms. As you know, the parser doesn’t know about def, case, receive, defmodule and friends. So the documentation for those will be in Kernel.SpecialForms and Kernel.

For learning purposes, awhile ago I tried to organize all the standard library modules and their functions into a spreadsheet. It is messy, but if it helps, it is up on Github:

https://github.com/gbih/elixir-functions

At the time, I thought it would be fantastic if there were a single command in Elixir that would automatically generate such a list and pull in user-contributed examples. Perhaps a nice side-project someday.