
Elixir obsoletes Ruby, Erlang and Clojure in one go - qertoip
https://medium.com/@qertoip/elixir-obsoletes-ruby-erlang-and-clojure-in-one-go-605329b7b9b4
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karmajunkie
This is a bit hyperbolic. I'm a big fan of Elixir and Phoenix, and most of my
future client work is going to be done in Elixir if I have anything to say
about it. But making broad, poorly supported statements about its comparison
to other languages and platforms is neither necessary nor does it make the
Elixir community seem rational. Cargo-culting has done a lot of damage to the
credibility of platforms of various stripes in recent years, and one of the
first signs of that is preposterous statements like "X obsoletes Y". Stick
with "X is really good at <feature> and if you do A, B, or C you should check
it out."

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djur
This is pretty much a farrago of unsupported claims, but one thing I'd like to
note (as a fan of all four languages) is that Elixir is still not as suitable
as Ruby for scripting purposes.

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transfire
Obviously overstated but not a completely untenuous position.

1\. Since it is basically Erlang with a better syntax and a few superset
features, then the contention is pretty much a given in this case.

2\. The fact that it is something like 40x faster than Ruby and the syntax
leans on Ruby a fair bit, it makes a good case here too, although I would
argue there are a few bits of syntax that aren't so clean, and, being
functional, it isn't as easy to program. (Prepare for a lengthy learning
curve.)

3\. As for Clojure, I think you'd be hard pressed to convince the brotherhood
of lispers, but you might get away with calling it a push.

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icolor
I know that Elixir isn't supposed to supersede Erlang, and Jose Valim had made
it clear that he wanted to create a community that could also benefit Erlang
users. For many, Elixir users won't have to even touch Erlang. But for some,
this new language community is a great stepping stone for those who want an
easier path into Erlang.

Making broad and dominating statements shaming other languages is truly not
one of the community values.

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all_these_years
Not true. Not only that the OO is not dead yet. But the main obstacle for
Elixir is that there are just not enough stable libraries. You couldn't get
the productivity you can easily get on Ruby or JS. That Elixir is something to
watch, and it may have some clear user cases (specially where Erlang shines),
I would agree... but no much else for now.

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weatherlight
Elixir has 30 years of erlang libraries to lean on.

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mooreds
As someone who has little experience with any of these, would love to hear
some experienced folks give feedback on these claims.

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pmarreck
[https://engineering.pinterest.com/blog/introducing-new-
open-...](https://engineering.pinterest.com/blog/introducing-new-open-source-
tools-elixir-community)

"So, we like Elixir and have seen some pretty big wins with it. The system
that manages rate limits for both the Pinterest API and Ads API is built in
Elixir. Its 50 percent response time is around 500 microseconds with a 90
percent response time of 800 microseconds. Yes, microseconds.

"We’ve also seen an improvement in code clarity. We’re converting our
notifications system from Java to Elixir. The Java version used an Actor
system and weighed in at around 10,000 lines of code. The new Elixir system
has shrunk this to around 1000 lines. The Elixir based system is also faster
and more consistent than the Java one and runs on half the number of servers."

These are pretty strong claims, I think.

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zubairq
Are there any large websites using Elxir? Hmmm... I thought not

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merdreubu
I know about Bleacher Report[1],the second biggest sport site in the world
after ESPN, and Pinterest[2].

[1][https://vimeo.com/128349620](https://vimeo.com/128349620)

[2][https://engineering.pinterest.com/blog/introducing-new-
open-...](https://engineering.pinterest.com/blog/introducing-new-open-source-
tools-elixir-community)

~~~
zubairq
Pinterest only uses Elixir for "Pinterest API and Ads API is built in Elixir",
but it Pinterest itself is NOT built with Elixir...

~~~
pmarreck
If your criteria for evaluating a new technology is "one of the top 25
Internet domains uses it to power their main website," you're a pretty shitty
technology evaluator, because the things you are evaluating TODAY should be
the things that will be powering the sites of TOMORROW.

And Elixir DOES have a shot at that, in my experience with it.

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sanatgersappa
No.

