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Bad side: you have to do everything yourself. Ruby on Rails, ASP.Net, Django, they all have a million and one StackOverflow answers, blog posts, and books writ

Bad side: you have to do everything yourself. Ruby on Rails, ASP.Net, Django, they all have a million and one StackOverflow answers, blog posts, and books written about them. I found out the hard way that Elixir and Phoenix docs aren't as prolific. That and the names are less Googleable. Some people may like that challenge, but it does add a level of difficulty.

andy_ppp 10y ago
In my experience reading the Phoenix source code is much simpler than Django or Rails so less need for stack overflow or help. There is much less to go wrong as well.
- iamatworknow 10y ago
  You do realize your experience isn't typical, right? Most developers aren't going to look through the source code for the framework they use to answer a question about usage. They're going to google it.
  - ibgib 10y ago
    Unlike with past languages, I've also found myself looking at the source code with Elixir, but it's because docs are first-class citizens. I think this is atypical of languages in general, and it's actually why the source code comes up when googling for the info. The answers are in the code in the form of: ``` @doc This is some useful, markdown documentation, which actually contains usage info. ## Usage ## Examples ```
ibgib 10y ago
> I found out the hard way that Elixir and Phoenix docs aren't as prolific Odd, because I have found the opposite to be true about the docs. I've found the docs proper to be quite prolific, well maintained and well-written with examples. This stems from docs being first-class citizens of the language, a dead-simple docs generation tool, and their dogged commitment on excellent documentation (which is why docs are first-class citizens to begin with). > That and the names are less Googleable. That said, the _SO/Google_ aspect (not docs) is _significantly_ less prolific - I totally agree with that. But I've found where with other languages I often find myself on SO (C# and JS mainly), I haven't even needed it because the docs are just so well maintained (and versioned). This, plus their community is _extremely_ active, on the elixir forum and github (also slack, but I use that less). So now, when I google for elixir info, I'm basically googling to get to the official documentation quickly. If there is any question I have beyond that, I check the elixir forum, rarely (but sometimes) needing to post a new question. Perhaps I've just had a different experience wrt this.
- twoquestions 10y ago
  You're right, I should take a look through the source more often. I chalk it up to my C# dev background, where source code was either completely impenetrable, a Sacred Thing that nobody should feel privileged to look at, or both. I'll have to give it another look sometime.
  - ibgib 10y ago
    Yes, I also grew up with C# (after Delphi, which was basically C#'s unmanaged memory version, largely architected by mastermind Anders Hejlsberg). So looking at source just wasn't a thing. Now with Elixir, not only is it a thing, but they have a super active community and great source code/repository maintenance.

andy_ppp 10y ago

In my experience reading the Phoenix source code is much simpler than Django or Rails so less need for stack overflow or help. There is much less to go wrong as well.

iamatworknow 10y ago
You do realize your experience isn't typical, right? Most developers aren't going to look through the source code for the framework they use to answer a question about usage. They're going to google it.
- ibgib 10y ago
  Unlike with past languages, I've also found myself looking at the source code with Elixir, but it's because docs are first-class citizens. I think this is atypical of languages in general, and it's actually why the source code comes up when googling for the info. The answers are in the code in the form of: ``` @doc This is some useful, markdown documentation, which actually contains usage info. ## Usage ## Examples ```

ibgib 10y ago

> I found out the hard way that Elixir and Phoenix docs aren't as prolific Odd, because I have found the opposite to be true about the docs. I've found the docs proper to be quite prolific, well maintained and well-written with examples. This stems from docs being first-class citizens of the language, a dead-simple docs generation tool, and their dogged commitment on excellent documentation (which is why docs are first-class citizens to begin with). > That and the names are less Googleable. That said, the _SO/Google_ aspect (not docs) is _significantly_ less prolific - I totally agree with that. But I've found where with other languages I often find myself on SO (C# and JS mainly), I haven't even needed it because the docs are just so well maintained (and versioned). This, plus their community is _extremely_ active, on the elixir forum and github (also slack, but I use that less). So now, when I google for elixir info, I'm basically googling to get to the official documentation quickly. If there is any question I have beyond that, I check the elixir forum, rarely (but sometimes) needing to post a new question. Perhaps I've just had a different experience wrt this.

twoquestions 10y ago
You're right, I should take a look through the source more often. I chalk it up to my C# dev background, where source code was either completely impenetrable, a Sacred Thing that nobody should feel privileged to look at, or both. I'll have to give it another look sometime.
- ibgib 10y ago
  Yes, I also grew up with C# (after Delphi, which was basically C#'s unmanaged memory version, largely architected by mastermind Anders Hejlsberg). So looking at source just wasn't a thing. Now with Elixir, not only is it a thing, but they have a super active community and great source code/repository maintenance.