4 ms·

I left PD about 5 months ago, so my information might be slightly outdated, but I can confirm that Elixir is used quite a bit internally, including for highly a

I left PD about 5 months ago, so my information might be slightly outdated, but I can confirm that Elixir is used quite a bit internally, including for highly available critical services that all event data passes through. While there might be some truth to Elixir starting out as an experiment, its adoption has not only spread to multiple teams, but it is also the language most new services are to be written in, going forward. The unique thing about Elixir is how it appealed to both Ruby and Scala folks internally.

brianwawok 8y ago
To ruby folks, it's like faster ruby. What is the appeal to Scala folks? As formerly a Scala folk, it hasn't had much interest to me (but I have no negative feelings about it either, it has always been a "cool another language" to me)
- sb8244 8y ago
  Is Scala is beholden to Java garbage collection? I know one big advantage I like is that each process has separate GC so you can run it in certain situations without affecting the entire system
  - brianwawok 8y ago
    Mostly (there are some projects to do Scala not on the JVM, but I have never seen them be more than a toy). That said, the JVM GC is the (IMO) best GC out there, it is really good for many many situations. And then there are some paid JVMs if you want to trade latency guarantees.
- romanhn 8y ago
  I wasn't writing Scala day-to-day myself, but common (though by no means universal) objections were around complexity and difficulty of iterating quickly. The author of the Elixir post below also wrote a bit about his experiences with Scala - http://evrl.com/programming/scala/2017/04/04/scala-part-ii.html http://evrl.com/programming/scala/2017/04/04/scala-part-ii.h....
- sthatipamala 8y ago
  A lot of Scala users like the Akka actor system. The actor model is a first-class library in Elixir (or more specifically Erlang/OTP)
  - PopeDotNinja 8y ago
    Learning to understand the actor model in Elixir made me a much better programmer. I highly recommend taking the plunge, even if you don't ultimately use Elixir. Be prepared for a bit of a brain bender though. Pro-tip: If you can't write a GenServer in Elixir from scratch, along with understanding all of the differences between casts and calls, you probably don't understand the actor model (at least how it's used in Elixir) very well.
    - zinclozenge 8y ago
      This is pure gatekeeping.
      - PopeDotNinja 8y ago
        I'm not sure what that means. Can you clarify?
- dasil003 8y ago
  Scala brings functional programming to the JVM. Elixir brings style to Erlang/OTP. Comparing to Ruby is apples to oranges because Ruby's concurrency and operational foundation is weak. The better comparison is Erlang/OTP vs JVM, where JVM gets the edge on optimized performance, and Erlang/OTP gets the edge on concurrency & tooling. The appeal for Scala folk would be if you don't care about the JVM compatibility or raw performance, and want an opinionated ecosystem built from the ground up around the actor model.

brianwawok 8y ago

To ruby folks, it's like faster ruby. What is the appeal to Scala folks? As formerly a Scala folk, it hasn't had much interest to me (but I have no negative feelings about it either, it has always been a "cool another language" to me)

sb8244 8y ago
Is Scala is beholden to Java garbage collection? I know one big advantage I like is that each process has separate GC so you can run it in certain situations without affecting the entire system
- brianwawok 8y ago
  Mostly (there are some projects to do Scala not on the JVM, but I have never seen them be more than a toy). That said, the JVM GC is the (IMO) best GC out there, it is really good for many many situations. And then there are some paid JVMs if you want to trade latency guarantees.
romanhn 8y ago
I wasn't writing Scala day-to-day myself, but common (though by no means universal) objections were around complexity and difficulty of iterating quickly. The author of the Elixir post below also wrote a bit about his experiences with Scala - http://evrl.com/programming/scala/2017/04/04/scala-part-ii.html http://evrl.com/programming/scala/2017/04/04/scala-part-ii.h....
sthatipamala 8y ago
A lot of Scala users like the Akka actor system. The actor model is a first-class library in Elixir (or more specifically Erlang/OTP)
- PopeDotNinja 8y ago
  Learning to understand the actor model in Elixir made me a much better programmer. I highly recommend taking the plunge, even if you don't ultimately use Elixir. Be prepared for a bit of a brain bender though. Pro-tip: If you can't write a GenServer in Elixir from scratch, along with understanding all of the differences between casts and calls, you probably don't understand the actor model (at least how it's used in Elixir) very well.
  - zinclozenge 8y ago
    This is pure gatekeeping.
    - PopeDotNinja 8y ago
      I'm not sure what that means. Can you clarify?
dasil003 8y ago
Scala brings functional programming to the JVM. Elixir brings style to Erlang/OTP. Comparing to Ruby is apples to oranges because Ruby's concurrency and operational foundation is weak. The better comparison is Erlang/OTP vs JVM, where JVM gets the edge on optimized performance, and Erlang/OTP gets the edge on concurrency & tooling. The appeal for Scala folk would be if you don't care about the JVM compatibility or raw performance, and want an opinionated ecosystem built from the ground up around the actor model.