4 ms·

I guess you are a Java enthusiast (in my experience Java coders just tilt with Ruby). Anyway you should try Elixir, it is Ruby "The right way" in my opinion.

dudul 9y ago
Please let's stop spreading this "elixir is like fast/better ruby". The syntax is not even that similar, and the runtime is completely different, the patterns and tools available not the same at all. I know it's probably a hill on which I'm gonna die and get a lot of downvotes, but we should really try to not force Elixir into being a new, fast ruby and let it evolve and solve problems in its own ways.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- regulation_d 9y ago
  "elixir is like fast/better ruby" is simplistic but it's also not entirely untrue. When I first started playing with Phoenix I found it palpably similar to Rails, but also faster and better in a lot of ways, especially the WebSockets story. When I started writing Elixir I didn't know how great it was nor did I understand how different it was from Ruby. The BEAM is a challenging thing to grok. As I used it more and more, I did learn and appreciate those things. But at no point, did I feel deceived about how similar Elixir and Ruby were supposed to have been. I was surprised and relieved by how many of the things I had to worry about in Ruby, I didn't have to worry about in Elixir. At the end of the day, Elixir's similarity to Ruby is part of what gets a lot of people like me in the door. It's a hook and I think it's a good one. I mean, sure, we're going to have to explain to people why they don't need something like Sidekiq, and we're going to do it many, many times. But that's what we do as a welcoming community. I guess it's a balance. If we have a lot of people trying out Elixir and leaving because they feel they were misinformed, that's definitely relevant. But I don't hear much of that. On the other hand, if we can use this similarity to get OO people to try out this crazy, awesome FP language that uses the actor model, that could really help grow the language. You're on point that Elixir really is a completely different paradigm, but I don't know if I agree that it really matters from a marketing perspective, particularly when marketing to Rubyists.
  - nicoburns 9y ago
    > when I first started playing with Phoenix I found it palpably similar to Rails, but also faster and better in a lot of ways, especially the WebSockets story. Thing is virtually every language that is used for webdev has a framework that is similar to rails. So that's not much of a discriminatory when comparing languages...
    - regulation_d 9y ago
      The number of languages that do WebSockets well include what would be a small subset of "virtually every language that is used for webdev [sic] has a framework that is similar to rails". But that wasn't really the point of the comment. The point, for those who didn't feel the need to read all the way through, is that Elixir's surface level similarity to Ruby is enough to make Rubyists, or at least this Rubyist, feel reasonably comfortable, reasonably quickly. Making the Elixir/Ruby comparisons may have some annoying side effects, but they're probably good for the growth of the language.
  - izietto 9y ago
    Yes it's simplistic, but I'm not a native English speaker so it's hard for me to express an extensive thought :( I'm sorry about that
- izietto 9y ago
  > Please let's stop spreading this "elixir is like fast/better ruby" It's just my opinion, and I didn't make it up, I'm a Ruby on Rails developer with 7+ years of experience and I played enough with Elixir/Phoenix in order to come to a sensible opinion (I even contributed to Phoenix)
didibus 9y ago
Its true, I'm more used to C like syntax, but I have no issues with Lisp, Python or MLs. I think Ruby reminds me of Basic, and I similarly just can't enjoy myself when using Basic syntax. I understand a lot of people enjoy it, not trying to blame it, its me I'm sure, not Ruby. That said, I've seen a few languages like Elixir and Crystal come up and they use "Ruby like syntax" as a selling point. So I'm trying to understand, what does everyone who likes the syntax find so great about it?

dudul 9y ago

Please let's stop spreading this "elixir is like fast/better ruby". The syntax is not even that similar, and the runtime is completely different, the patterns and tools available not the same at all. I know it's probably a hill on which I'm gonna die and get a lot of downvotes, but we should really try to not force Elixir into being a new, fast ruby and let it evolve and solve problems in its own ways.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
regulation_d 9y ago
"elixir is like fast/better ruby" is simplistic but it's also not entirely untrue. When I first started playing with Phoenix I found it palpably similar to Rails, but also faster and better in a lot of ways, especially the WebSockets story. When I started writing Elixir I didn't know how great it was nor did I understand how different it was from Ruby. The BEAM is a challenging thing to grok. As I used it more and more, I did learn and appreciate those things. But at no point, did I feel deceived about how similar Elixir and Ruby were supposed to have been. I was surprised and relieved by how many of the things I had to worry about in Ruby, I didn't have to worry about in Elixir. At the end of the day, Elixir's similarity to Ruby is part of what gets a lot of people like me in the door. It's a hook and I think it's a good one. I mean, sure, we're going to have to explain to people why they don't need something like Sidekiq, and we're going to do it many, many times. But that's what we do as a welcoming community. I guess it's a balance. If we have a lot of people trying out Elixir and leaving because they feel they were misinformed, that's definitely relevant. But I don't hear much of that. On the other hand, if we can use this similarity to get OO people to try out this crazy, awesome FP language that uses the actor model, that could really help grow the language. You're on point that Elixir really is a completely different paradigm, but I don't know if I agree that it really matters from a marketing perspective, particularly when marketing to Rubyists.
- nicoburns 9y ago
  > when I first started playing with Phoenix I found it palpably similar to Rails, but also faster and better in a lot of ways, especially the WebSockets story. Thing is virtually every language that is used for webdev has a framework that is similar to rails. So that's not much of a discriminatory when comparing languages...
  - regulation_d 9y ago
    The number of languages that do WebSockets well include what would be a small subset of "virtually every language that is used for webdev [sic] has a framework that is similar to rails". But that wasn't really the point of the comment. The point, for those who didn't feel the need to read all the way through, is that Elixir's surface level similarity to Ruby is enough to make Rubyists, or at least this Rubyist, feel reasonably comfortable, reasonably quickly. Making the Elixir/Ruby comparisons may have some annoying side effects, but they're probably good for the growth of the language.
- izietto 9y ago
  Yes it's simplistic, but I'm not a native English speaker so it's hard for me to express an extensive thought :( I'm sorry about that
izietto 9y ago
> Please let's stop spreading this "elixir is like fast/better ruby" It's just my opinion, and I didn't make it up, I'm a Ruby on Rails developer with 7+ years of experience and I played enough with Elixir/Phoenix in order to come to a sensible opinion (I even contributed to Phoenix)

didibus 9y ago

Its true, I'm more used to C like syntax, but I have no issues with Lisp, Python or MLs. I think Ruby reminds me of Basic, and I similarly just can't enjoy myself when using Basic syntax. I understand a lot of people enjoy it, not trying to blame it, its me I'm sure, not Ruby. That said, I've seen a few languages like Elixir and Crystal come up and they use "Ruby like syntax" as a selling point. So I'm trying to understand, what does everyone who likes the syntax find so great about it?