Elixirists or Alchemists?

I agree that Alchemists is way cooler

I’m also on the Alchemists side!

When I first heard of Alchemists, I thought it was in reference to those using the Alchemist Emacs/Spacemacs plugin. There’s no immediate connection to Elixir and so I can see why José is not keen on it. I think it definitely grows on you and I do like it.

I quite like Chris McCord’s suggestion of something as simple (and self-assured) as Elixir Programmers (or Elixir Developers) - Elixir is a very confident language and these terms reflect that.

Having said that, whatever José adopts will ultimately become the de facto term… so I’m with José’s Elixirists until he says otherwise

Gophers is a terrible name

+1 for Alchemists. My favorite Anime - Full Metal Alchemist

I dont rly care, but imo both sounds weird.
elixir developer is fine i guess.

I like Alchemists，it’s cool. Software development is not predictable enough to be engineering and not
rigorous enough to be science.

I really do like “Alchemists” and though prefer it.

When I think about the mid-age alchemists, I do see very mystical people that are misunderstood by the mundane, because the knowledge they use seems like magic to the masses.

Sometimes there are people, that do treat me exactly like that. I do often encounter people, that consider building a spacecraft and flying to mars applied science, while programming (or even using) a computer is somewhere inbetween dark and light magic.

So I think alchemists is very suitable

Software engineering may not be rigorous science when you consider all the management and human variables involved, but Computer Science sure is a rigorous science.

I’ve used Elixir Alchemist a lot since I’ve been starting to code in Elixir.
(I like it particularly because I can tell people I’m an Alchemista.)

What I really like about it is that so many in the community not just like it but LOVE it

Here are some positives and negatives:

• it’s fun
• It’s cool
• It’s unique/different
• It’s not taking ourselves too seriously
• It’s related to Elixir:

alchemy - the medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned with the transmutation of matter, in particular with attempts to convert base metals into gold or find a universal elixir. occult sciences, such as alchemy and astrology.

• It sounds good

Some negatives:

• Not immediately obvious that it refers to an Elixir developer (though in time that would be less of a problem, esp if it is mentioned on the Elixir Lang site)
• It’s meaning has some negative connotations:

alchemy - the medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned with the*transmutation of matter, in particular with attempts to convert base metals into gold or find a universal elixir. occult sciences, such as alchemy and astrology.

occult - mystical, supernatural, or magical powers, practices, or phenomena: a secret society to study alchemy and the occult.

(But this could be seen as ‘cool’ too).