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Elixir 1.19

elixir-lang.org

21–30 of 152 posts

Re: Elixir 1.19

#21
post #2

The progressive introduction of automated type checking in Elixir should serve as a reference on how to improve a programming language gracefully without breaking changes. So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions that end up creating a split in the ecosystem that takes years to resolve. Thankfully José has been very clear about Elixir being done since at least 2018. The la…

> So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions

I can only think of 2: python 3 and perl 6.

Those two were very traumatic so it's not surprising it feels like more.

Re: Elixir 1.19

#22
post #2

The progressive introduction of automated type checking in Elixir should serve as a reference on how to improve a programming language gracefully without breaking changes. So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions that end up creating a split in the ecosystem that takes years to resolve. Thankfully José has been very clear about Elixir being done since at least 2018. The la…

> So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions I can only think of 2: python 3 and perl 6. Those two were very traumatic so it's not surprising it feels like more.

C++11 fucking with strings also comes to mind.

Re: Elixir 1.19

#23

Elixir just keeps chugging along steadily releasing great features and improvements. It's an astoundingly well designed language and the creators have a solid approach to its development. It's a shame I don't get to use Elixir day to day.

I quit my job and started a company just so I can use Elixir.

Re: Elixir 1.19

#24
post #2

The progressive introduction of automated type checking in Elixir should serve as a reference on how to improve a programming language gracefully without breaking changes. So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions that end up creating a split in the ecosystem that takes years to resolve. Thankfully José has been very clear about Elixir being done since at least 2018. The la…

> So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions I can only think of 2: python 3 and perl 6. Those two were very traumatic so it's not surprising it feels like more.

php

Re: Elixir 1.19

#25

Elixir is still confusing, not the language, but the ecosystem, tooling, and philosophy. Is it dynamic or static? Is it compiled or not? If it's not, then why do we have Elixir scripts, which have different file extension? If it uses BEAM and you'd inevitably need to know Erlang when you hit the edge cases, then why not just learn Erlang? If it solves concurrency the "right way" due to supervision trees, why not use…

I don’t understand why people drink orange soda. If you want something orange flavoured, eat an orange! If you want something bubbly, drink soda water!

.ex compiles to beam files to be run later

.exs compiles to memory

You don’t need to know Erlang to use Elixir; I’m a few years in now and I’ve never had to write any Erlang.

Re: Elixir 1.19

#26
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true for languages that have macros. I just don't like macros, as they get over-abused in every language that has them. I'd much rather deal with just boilerplate and tedious syntax but still straightforward and completely in the language over macros, for the most part. Some macros are indeed useful, like in Rust with `println`, but they still get thrown everywhere.

Frameworks in langauges that don't use macros have this problem too that's what I was getting at with the DSL vs API thing. I don't want to litigate the worthiness of macros for a given purpose here. But if you don't use them for this you have to use something for this the problem doesn't go away. Wherever rails or phoenix has macro-defined syntax to handle a specific task, laravel or whatever will have a collection…

> Frameworks in langauges that don't use macros have this problem too that's what I was getting at with the DSL vs API thing.

You mean in the sense that the language's built-in syntax and available abstractions get abused so much that it approximates a DSL?

Re: Elixir 1.19

#27
post #2

The progressive introduction of automated type checking in Elixir should serve as a reference on how to improve a programming language gracefully without breaking changes. So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions that end up creating a split in the ecosystem that takes years to resolve. Thankfully José has been very clear about Elixir being done since at least 2018. The la…

> So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions I can only think of 2: python 3 and perl 6. Those two were very traumatic so it's not surprising it feels like more.

Ruby 1.8.7 -> 1.9.0 caused a lot of problems in the sysadmin space that took years to get resolved.

Re: Elixir 1.19

#28

I really came to love gleam over the last few months. I appreciate elixir getting a type system and remember that this was the big NoGo for me when I explored it a while back. I'd like to give it another chance some time, but I'm worried that it's like typescript - looks typed on the outside but for many libs and packages the types are just a dynamic/any. Is my fear justified? Beam is amazing btw

Gleam doesn't give you access to the full amazingness of OTP and BEAM. Elixir does.

Re: Elixir 1.19

#29

Elixir is still confusing, not the language, but the ecosystem, tooling, and philosophy. Is it dynamic or static? Is it compiled or not? If it's not, then why do we have Elixir scripts, which have different file extension? If it uses BEAM and you'd inevitably need to know Erlang when you hit the edge cases, then why not just learn Erlang? If it solves concurrency the "right way" due to supervision trees, why not use…

Python has a GIL and is mutable, which makes concurrency impossible and error-prone, respectively. Elixir doesn't have a GIL and is immutable.

Re: Elixir 1.19

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So many examples of programming languages have huge breaking changes between versions I can only think of 2: python 3 and perl 6. Those two were very traumatic so it's not surprising it feels like more.

Ruby 1.8.7 -> 1.9.0 caused a lot of problems in the sysadmin space that took years to get resolved.

triggered.

There was a rails upgrade around that time that was similarly painful, at least in the humongous rails app I was working in.

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