From Ruby/Rails -> Phoenix: learn Elixir first, or dive into Phoenix tutorials?

Do learn Elixir first. It is not Ruby, nor object oriented language.

The Phoenix framework will be easier to pick up once you know Elixir idioms. Iti s also very similar to Ruby. But you will use it better way if you know how Elixir and OTP, umbrella apps work etc.

Edit: also, I found a good way is to build a simple API first to get a feeling of the language/tools, rather than starting with a big project.

I did in this order.

1. http://elixirschool.com
2. https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/elixir/
3. http://www.phoenixframework.org/docs

Please learn Elixir first. Phoenix is not Rails—it’s just a web server with some conveniences. To really take advantage of it, learn the language first and then some OTP.

Do you really need to build a web app now? A week or half a week or learning Elixir will pay off.

agree with all the others.

I would recommend going through the elixirkoans.io, after you have read up on elixir at elixirschool etc. - gets you through a lot of the syntax.

Fair enough. I have some functional experience with Clojure, so hopefully I can ramp up on Elixir in a week or less. Unfortunately I do have a time sensitive project to do now, and I’m really wanting to not fall back into the old pattern of just using the tools I know (but wish to break free from ).

Thanks for the suggestions!

We’re very lucky to have some really well written books so definitely check them out

Also don’t forget you can get 25% off both Programming Elixir and Programming Phoenix via your control panel on our competition sites (we are giving away a copy of each per month).

As many have pointed out, Elixir and Phoenix while may look familiar if you know Ruby and Rails, but under the hood they are quite different

Oh if you have good Clojure experience then although the syntax here is significantly different you will pick up the idioms very quickly. You might even be able to start with phoenix and elixir concurrently without much issue.

Just keep in mind, Phoenix is mostly just a set of plugs, nothing is magical, feel free to look in its source code to see how anything is done.

Sorry, I’m not clear how to exercise the discount on pragprog.com. I’m new here, so I don’t know what the competition sites are…

Here ya go

Here’s a really good example of why knowing the language well pays off:

https://redd.it/5qsquu

See the first answer.