Is Elixir more understandable and easy to learn than Python?

Hi @Ann, welcome

This question doesn’t have an answer, in my opinion . It’s subjective. I wouldn’t say that Elixir is “more understandable and easy to learn” than Python, no. I wouldn’t say it’s “for professionals” either, though. At the beginning of your programming journey, there are many great choices.

Elixir lends itself to a nice beginner experience in my opinion, and you will be able to avoid learning concepts that are taught in most intro to programming courses (mutable data structures, object-oriented programming) but that are not really necessary to get going.

On the other hand, Python takes the crown when it comes to being everywhere. It’s taught in most universities and colleges, it’s used in most fields, and it has a virtually-infinite amount of resources to learn from.

So, my two cents: don’t feel like you couldn’t learn Elixir, but at the same time, don’t think it will be significantly easier than learning Python is this is the first programming language you’re going to learn.

In any case, happy learning.

Do you know what you might want to use either of those for? I think it depends on that.

if you can correctly tell me what the result of the last line is in python, then yes, python might be easier to understand:

def f(list = []):
  return list

def g(list):
  list.append('foo')

result = f()
g(result)
f()

On this note, if you are willing to focus on front end, elm provides a similar focused learning experience, where you don’t have to learn lots of irrelevant concepts.

It is easier and harder. The reason is, that Elixir lacks one ‘superpower’ of Python - mutability.

This makes it easier to understand what’s going on but also complicates some things (see ityonemo’s example, not possible in Elixir.) For most problems immutability is a good thing. Especially for producing maintainable code. (which is not a core concern of a beginner).

I have about 20 years of Python and 2 years of Elixir experience.
I’m more “familiar” with Elixir, though. I can better imagine how the implementation of a new problem will look in Elixir than Python. What the challenges and pitfalls will be.

When you start using concurrency, then Python becomes close to useless compared to Elixir. (Actors vs GIL threading). Also metaprogramming is way more powerful in Elixir. A big pro for Python is: there is a lib for everything. That’s what I’m using Python for now: a toolbox for quick scripts. Would never again start an application in Python.

I think it is , right?

I think it is , right?

Try it

Sebb:
BEAM gives you some nice mutable things for pretty much most things you might need. ets, counters, atomics, process dict, if you really need it, but if you really want something mutable, these days there’s always a database.

Terrible, I have used Python for 5 years, but I still get confused in some strange places

I know how to fix this issue:

def f(list = None):
  if list is None:
    list = []
  return list

I think you messed up your indentation!