pmjoe
How suitable is Elixir for a CLI application?
I need to develop a CLI application and I’m wondering how suitable Elixir is for this kind of application. The application must be distributed to clients and it should be as simple as possible to run, ideally a static build with a single binary. I know Elixir has some build systems and I’m wondering if some of these systems can produce a binary, in the end, packing everything inside like the Erlang VM, etc, etc…
Protecting the source code is also desirable.
Marked As Solved
josevalim
Here is my summary:
-
Are you making a CLI tool for Elixir developers only? If yes:
a. Do you want to extend Mix (like mix phx.new)? If so, usemix archive
b. Otherwise, usemix escript -
Otherwise, don’t use Elixir (for all the reasons mentioned above and for the same reasons I wouldn’t use ruby, python, java, etc)
Also Liked
ityonemo
hauleth
hauleth
Bakeware still doesn’t main problem with Elixir for CLI tooling - startup time. Most of the CLI tools is one-time quick tools that are launched often and that finish quickly. In such environment Erlang features aren’t that appealing and do not bring much to the table except familiarity.
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