Just finished Chapter 1. As someone coming from a more typical background (web servers in Java, Python, etc.) the explanations of the BEAM and history of Erlang were very helpful to put everything in context for an Elixir newbie.
Favorite quote:
“The goal of the platform isn’t to squeeze out as many requests per second as possible but to keep performance as predictable and within limits as possible.”
Hi all, I have been a long time haven’t seriously checked with elixir since my last job.
hopefully can leave some time to read the book and put the review here every week.
Hey all,
Ruby/Rails dev here with recent interest in Elixir. I’ve played around with Elixir/Phoenix extremely lightly with a couple tutorials, but will essentially be coming into this from the perspective of someone with no real in-depth knowledge in Elixir.
I already own EIA and it’s up next on my book list. I’ll be joining you all very shortly and wanted to send a quick hello.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi everyone 
It’s great seeing so many people here! I’m looking forward to the fun discussions. I’ll try to keep up as much as possible, but obviously I can’t address every comment & question. If you feel I’ve glossed over or skipped some important point or question, hit me a DM.
This was listed as an example of what can be done with macros, but in general, as the author of ExActor, I don’t recommend using it 
I shall try to find a better example for the next edition.
People are using Rust together with Erlang/Elixir. I think Rustler is a popular choice (Rustler — Rustler v0.38.0). I didn’t think about explicitly mentioning it, but I’ll reconsider this for the next edition.
Ideally those would be reported at the official book page on manning, so they can be marked as correct, and fixed with the next update. But if it’s too much trouble, you can report it here, and I’ll see about transferring them over there.
Suddenly I’m starting to feel slightly nervous 
I remember that! It was so much fun comparing solutions!
Great point, this should be mentioned. The 1st edition was written way back when there was no JIT, and I somehow missed this opportunity during the update. I’ll see about fixing it in the 4th.
Fun fact: the first drafts used the term EVM (Erlang Virtual Machine). But after discussing it with a few folks, I’ve changed it, because it wasn’t really used in the community, while BEAM seemed to be more popular than ERTS. I wonder if at this point the ship has sailed (for which I’m probably partially guilty myself)?
This is the correct interpretation. Also, the table tells the true story, not some hypothetical. Having worked on both systems from day 1, I was confident that the 1st one could be vastly simplified with Erlang. But yeah, I’m not suggesting that the Erlang solutions can always replace the mentioned products.
Hi, thanks for setting this up!
I’m a little late to the party but yesterday I got the latest edition and read until the end of the first chapter. I read the earlier editions quite some time ago, but this is such a great book that I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. I really enjoyed the first chapter, in particular I love how Sasa tells the story from the Erlang point of view - it makes me feel like we’re getting the full, deeper version of the story.
I will try adding some comments when I finish one chapter:
Chapter 1:
Mostly the same as the previous editions - talk about Erlang highly availability, the difficulty part to use Erlang and the motivation to use Elixir, and a general comparison to other programming languages like Ruby and C/C++.
The content as the first introductory chapter is very concise and accurate. The only part I will suggest is - It is probably a good idea to compare with Golang, a direct competitive to Elixir.
Chapter 2:
Basically the same draft as the old editions. This chapter is like a short usage guide on Elixir and the shell. I like it very much. It is short enough and covers most stuff you need to write a basic Elixir program.
Also, I am happy to see a book that it does not try to cover all the very basic stuff like data types nor boring small projects IMMEDIATELY.
First, what a great dedication page. I love that. 
Chapter 1
Background Info: I enjoyed the background and intro into Erlang. It wasn’t too extensive, and it was straight to the point regarding the pros, cons and reasons why many choose Elixir vs programming in Erlang.
Table 1.1 Comparison: I know this is just a top-level example comparing a couple different setups, but I don’t think a single person will glance at this and complain about the potential ease of Server B. I’m looking forward to learning more about this.
It’s good to know we can still use all the power of Erlang with the seemingly more enjoyable syntax/dev experience of Elixir.
That’s it for now. Looking forward to the next chapters.
Joining in! I am a few chapters in already, but glad I found this.
Coming from ruby on rails, I had to re-read and practice a few chapters to get my head around it.
Congratulations to the author and the entire team.
I’m a ruby on rails dev with 12 years of experience and I’ve worked with Elixir for about 5 years. I read the first edition and am reading the third edition of Elixir in Action. Congratulations. I want to get back to working with Elixir is a great book that helps me stay up to date.
Awesome that you’re doing a book club for this! I’ve only had digital copies of previous Elixir in Action releases, this time I decided it’s time to have it in print for a better reading experience.
However, it was not easy to swallow the $18 shipping cost in Europe from Manning.
Anyway, can’t wait to receive it