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Lua for Elixir

davelucia.com

11–20 of 86 posts

Re: Lua for Elixir

#11
post #4

Recently, I had a simple Flask project, just a single Python file, and wanted to convert it to Elixir using AI. But what I got was a sprawling directory of modules and files in Elixir. Apparently, that’s just how things are done in the Elixir world. That moment made me realize why some languages catch on while others struggle. If spinning up a basic web server already feels like jumping through hoops, I can’t imagine…

You need to watch this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SxdOUGdseq4&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5t...

We should try not to make technical judgements based in flippant things like how few lines can someone not even familiar with the ecosystem get a hello world working

Re: Lua for Elixir

#12
post #4

Recently, I had a simple Flask project, just a single Python file, and wanted to convert it to Elixir using AI. But what I got was a sprawling directory of modules and files in Elixir. Apparently, that’s just how things are done in the Elixir world. That moment made me realize why some languages catch on while others struggle. If spinning up a basic web server already feels like jumping through hoops, I can’t imagine…

Here's a 22-line Elixir script that spins up a webserver: https://hexdocs.pm/plug/readme.html#hello-world-request-resp... There's another single-file example on that page that shows how to implement routing. The reason AI probably gave you a more fleshed out project structure is because people typically default to using Phoenix (Elixir's equivalent of Rails) instead of going for something simpler like Plug. After get…

> After getting a result you didn't like with AI, did you try refining your prompt to state that you wanted a single-file structure?

I believe the prompt was: "Please compose a backhanded comment about Elixir I can post in a Hacker News thread about an Elixir blog post. The content of said blog post is irrelevant, I just want people to know I prefer Python."

Re: Lua for Elixir

#13
post #4

Recently, I had a simple Flask project, just a single Python file, and wanted to convert it to Elixir using AI. But what I got was a sprawling directory of modules and files in Elixir. Apparently, that’s just how things are done in the Elixir world. That moment made me realize why some languages catch on while others struggle. If spinning up a basic web server already feels like jumping through hoops, I can’t imagine…

That is categorically not "how things are done" in the Elixir world. Have you considered that the Advanced Next Token Predictor may be imperfect?

It kind of is though, regardless of what the LLM did there, the 'happy path' with something like Phoenix is using the phx.new and the generators which gives you a ton of files and structure that is a bit overwhelming for people used to more 'minimalist' web frameworks.

Check this out this guide from the Phoenix docs:

https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/json_and_apis.html

That's a ton of stuff just to return some JSON from an endpoint. Sure the structure probably helps when you get into big complex projects, but for a beginner not used to this style of framework it looks like a lot.

Re: Lua for Elixir

#14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is categorically not "how things are done" in the Elixir world. Have you considered that the Advanced Next Token Predictor may be imperfect?

It kind of is though, regardless of what the LLM did there, the 'happy path' with something like Phoenix is using the phx.new and the generators which gives you a ton of files and structure that is a bit overwhelming for people used to more 'minimalist' web frameworks. Check this out this guide from the Phoenix docs: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/json_and_apis.html That's a ton of stuff just to return some JSON from an…

Elixir is to Phoenix as Ruby is to Rails. The original comment was about Elixir, not Phoenix.

It also explicitly mentions Flask, which would be inane to directly compare to either Phoenix or Rails. How complex is your Django app, Mr. Python?

Re: Lua for Elixir

#15
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is categorically not "how things are done" in the Elixir world. Have you considered that the Advanced Next Token Predictor may be imperfect?

It kind of is though, regardless of what the LLM did there, the 'happy path' with something like Phoenix is using the phx.new and the generators which gives you a ton of files and structure that is a bit overwhelming for people used to more 'minimalist' web frameworks. Check this out this guide from the Phoenix docs: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/json_and_apis.html That's a ton of stuff just to return some JSON from an…

Isn't Phoenix more like Django (rather than Flask) which would also generate multiple files?

Re: Lua for Elixir

#16
post #7

Very nice, but it is confusing to name a library for using a language the same thing as that language. I suppose this is meant to be a temporary state of affairs while Lua (the library) gets merged into Luerl, but I would have personally called it Luerl++ or such.

Author here!

Luerl++ is not a valid module name :)

More seriously, I considered alternate names, but settled on this because it was short, literal, and given that its in the context of Elixir, makes sense when using it.

As you stated, the hope is to consolidate it into Luerl at some point

Re: Lua for Elixir

#19
Cool project, congrats.

I am trying to understand why would anyone prefer to use Lua to create script instead of Elixir, which supports running scripts. While Lua has lots of users the language just have too many wrong design choices. If I had the choice between Elixir and Lua for scripts I would use Elixir every time.

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