Elixir for Software Development: A Fair Choice

Elixir development is gaining attention in the world of programming mainly because of its reliability. The reason why startups and the banking sector is increasingly showing interest in Elixir for fintech development.

Now you must be wondering, what is Elixir used for? It is primarily used for large-scale applications with high traffic such as social media and platforms like discord depends on elixir to support five million users at a single time.

Elixir inherits all the advantages that a good programming language should have such as in terms of scalability, computing, stability, and performance.

A Brief History of Elixir

Elixir is one of the powerful languages built on top of the Erlang virtual machine called the BEAM, yet another powerful and functional programming language that has been around since the 1980s. Joe Armstrong, Mike Williams, and Robert Virding at Ericsson (a popular telecommunication company) developed Erlang.

Erlang is popular among the global industries such as telecommunications, finance, and e-commerce for its speed and capability.

Elixir, on the other hand, was developed by a Ruby developer named José Valim and was officially released in 2012. In order to develop a high-concurrency and low-latency programming language, Valim combined the attributes of Erlang, Ruby, and Clojure languages to develop something entirely different and new.

Valim’s idea behind this new language was to solve the concurrency problems in the ruby world because Ruby couldn't perform well under high load.

500 Startups is the most active global venture capital firm of 2019. They are using Elixir in their technology stack. Whereas, Goldman Sachs, leading investment banking uses Erlang its HFT (High-frequency Trading) platform.

Another interesting event related to Phoenix - a web development framework is also written in Elixir and is used for Elixir programming. Phoenix framework also runs on Erlang which means it leverages all the benefits that Erlang has to offer.

What Does Elixir’s Code Look Like?

Here’s a snippet from Visual Studio. I am sure the Elixir developers will totally get that.

If you are not a developer, there is a chance you may have not heard about it and if you are, there are chances you did not get an opportunity to work with it or to explore it. In this article, I would talk about why you should learn elixir and choose it for your next project.

PROS

Functionality: Since Elixir is a functional language it makes coding websites look like a breeze. Besides, Elixir is simpler, unlike Ruby. Simplistic functionality makes it easier to review, improve and maintain products.

Speed: Real question before choosing this programming language is, ‘How fast is Elixir?’ The answer is, it is reasonably fast. Elixir’s performance is much better than Ruby and Phoenix. Speed is of utmost importance for the best user experience therefore Elixir based software development responds quickly to all actions performed.

Fault Tolerance : When it comes to fault-tolerance and error resistance, Elixir is considered a more robust programming language than Ruby, Java, Python, etc. For example; when our computers and devices are not working properly, often we fix them by restarting the system. Once we do that, the system resets. Similarly, in Elixir whenever a process crashes, ‘Supervisors’ assist to ensure the full recovery. Supervisors manage the whole life-cycle including startup and shutdown thus ensuring the smooth performance of apps.

Reliable: Since Elixir is built using Erlang - which is known for developing some of the very reliable telecommunication infrastructures. It is developed for running complex systems with almost zero downtime.

Concurrency: It can run multiple processes simultaneously. Sometimes, concurrency may harm the overall performance of the application. However, concurrency in Elixir is unchallenging because of Erlang VM (BEAM). Software developed using Elixir are fully capable of handling multiple connections to work. Software built using this programming language can handle multiple connections concurrently.

Clean Syntax: The code is clean and quite readable. The syntax is simple and it gives elixir developers the ability to write less code. . But the transition from object-oriented language to functional programming language may need some time to get used to.

CONS

Small Community: Even though the language was developed in 2011, still it is considered relatively new. Therefore, the Elixir community, libraries, and tools are fewer in number than old programming languages such as Python, Java, etc. The reason why it would take time for Elixir to draw level with them.

Since it has a small open source community, it may be difficult for businesses to find skilled Elixir developers in their region. Therefore companies might need to outsource the Elixir web development. But Elixir’s official repository on GitHub has 863 contributors which show that the language is gaining popularity and attraction.

Young Ecosystem: As mentioned before, this language is quite young. Therefore, the ecosystem may not be perfect. So before you decide to use Elixir for your project, ensure that all relevant libraries are available at your disposal.

Where to Learn Elixir?

Elixir is a powerful and functional programming language that is built using the strength of Ruby and Erlang. It’s an excellent choice for businesses who prioritize performance and scalability, including large-scale web applications and IoT development.

According to GitHub, ‘Developers are using Elixir for Blockchain, Smart Contract apps and even Machine Learning.’ Even though hiring Elixir developers is challenging yet the popularity is spiking. The probability of big companies taking interest in this technology is higher.

If you are interested to learn more about the language, you can find many resources to study online such as podcasts, Youtube tutorials, and communities. Learning materials are available at Udemy and Elixir School.

Best Books to Kick-Start Your Learning

Programming Elixir 1.6 - Dave Thomas

Elixir Succinctly - Emanuele DelBono

Elixir in Action - Saša Juric

Adopting Elixir - Ben Marx, Bruce Tate, and Jose Valim

Joy of Elixir - Ryann Bigg

The Little Elixir and OTP Guidebook - Benjamin Tan Wei Hao

Learn Functional Programming With Elixir - Ulisses Almeida

Popular Udemy Courses 2021

The Complete Elixir and Phoenix Bootcamp - Udemy

Elixir and Phoenix: Real World Functional Programming - Udemy

Functional Programming using Elixir – The Complete Course

LEARNING PATH: Elixir: Web Development with Elixir

Learn Elixir Programming from ZERO to HERO

Key Takeaways

It is easier to learn. Developers can have a full grip in a matter of a few weeks.

Simple with higher readability value.

Since it runs on the BEAM Virtual Machines, it can handle user spikes with ease.

Elixir developers can have plenty of opportunities to work with a broader spectrum of companies.

It’s a popular choice for full-stack development.