Things I like about Elixir…
- This forum - Your first, and most cases, last stop for helpful tips, troubleshooting, chats, etc. This is somewhat unique in that it’s language wide. For example, AFAIK there isn’t a scalaforum.com with the same vibe.
- Elixir is batteries included - What I mean is that while it’s a language, it also ships with a great tool-chain and support for a great web development stack.
- BEAM is amazing - I’d actually say that with Elixir you come for the BEAM and you stay for the language. A lot of what Elixir is able to accomplish is due to the amazing VM it runs on. For those without true preemptive multitasking, lightweight processes and per-process garbage collection, I think you’ll like the BEAM.
- Functional programming isn’t that bad, honest - If you’re on Java 8 or 9, or Python or whatever, you’re already familiar with Lambdas. In Java you probably just use them to process collections, that’s good. Now pretend you’re programming Java, but you only work with data, static methods, and threads. Threads are easy to create and use and you have as many as you want. EJBs are essentially part of the language (OTP). That’s Elixir in a nutshell. Not so bad.
- But what about the library support? - Nope, you don’t usually see Elixir in the client SDK list of most projects. That said, there is a rich library ecosystem. When in doubt, ask in this forum for guidance. You’ll likely get an abundance of guidance.
I’ll stop there. For a great start on additional reading material, hit up this forum thread: When learning, what order of books did you start with?
