7 ms·

Is it just me or is Elixir being talked/written about more in the past couple of months?

by Pandabob 6y ago

cpursley 6y ago
Years.
- cpursley 6y ago
  Interesting that I'm getting down voted, I'm long on Elixir and betting my startup on it.
  - Ankhers 6y ago
    I didn't down vote you, but my guess is that it was because you commented a single word. Also, because of the position of your comment, I had to scroll back up in order to find the context.
SatvikBeri 6y ago
There were 300 elixir stories in 2020, an average of roughly .8 per day. In 2021 there have been 89 elixir stories for 108 days, so about the same. (Source: hnsearch)
- bostonvaulter2 6y ago
  Is it possible to tell how many of those hit the front page? I think the majority of those 300 stories in 2020 did not hit the front page. I'm curious how many there were in years prior as well.
lawik 6y ago
It is growing and having good adoption. Not a huge language but it also has a fair share of novel features (being built on Erlang) that aren't commonly seen with other langs. So I think it might have a disproportionate visibility compared to size. Lots of work happening in the community, lots of ambitious ideas and releases.
- joelbluminator 6y ago
  Why do you say its growing?
  - lawik 6y ago
    It recently hit top 50 on one of the big lists of programming languages and I see more people getting into it every day. It is growing unless there's s lsrge drain hole somewhere. Might not be growing relative to other larger langs but I'm fairly certain it is growing. And I've heard a lot of concern about it being niche so I tend to mention that it is growing. Because in my experience the biche is quite large and .. growing. I find plenty of work.
    - joelbluminator 6y ago
      There's quite a disconnect between the amount of attention it gets on HN and the fact it's not in the top 40 languages. I mean Tiobe index has it behind Lua, Lisp and RPG (?). So yes you can definitely say it's a niche.
      - 1_player 6y ago
        This is a forum composed mostly of software engineers working on web technologies in young companies or startups, which means we're usually at the bleeding edge of computing. The TIOBE Index represents the world of computing at large, including embedded development, industrial, financial, automotive, medical, hardware, etc. This is why C and Java are at the top of the TIOBE index and I'll argue will be there for the next 40 years, and doesn't mean that any language which is not C or Java are unpopular or niche. Ours might be a small percentage of total computing, but would you argue that web technologies/the Internet as a whole is a niche? There is a reason the embedded world still uses C, and there is a reason the web world doesn't. Using the TIOBE index as popularity contest is misguided.
        joelbluminator 6y ago
        Elixir is niche. It's number 48 in Tiobe, in Redmonk it's not in the top 20, in Stackoverflow yearly surveys it dropped out of the list (too little usage). You mean to tell me a programming language not in the top 40 isn't niche? Hey I'm a Rubyist and I acknowledge the fact Ruby is niche (in some cities/countries you will have difficulty getting a Ruby job), yet even Ruby is way more popular than Elixir.
cultofmetatron 6y ago
A bunch of startups including my own bet big on elixir 2 years ago and are starting to launch and gain prominence. the first wave of early adopters are coming out with battle stories to share and the conclusion is that elixir is the real deal.
- bmitc 6y ago
  > ... the conclusion is that elixir is the real deal This makes me even more excited to start an upcoming new position writing Elixir full-time!

Is it just me or is Elixir being talked/written about more in the past couple of months?

cpursley 6y ago

Years.

cpursley 6y ago
Interesting that I'm getting down voted, I'm long on Elixir and betting my startup on it.
- Ankhers 6y ago
  I didn't down vote you, but my guess is that it was because you commented a single word. Also, because of the position of your comment, I had to scroll back up in order to find the context.

SatvikBeri 6y ago

There were 300 elixir stories in 2020, an average of roughly .8 per day. In 2021 there have been 89 elixir stories for 108 days, so about the same. (Source: hnsearch)

bostonvaulter2 6y ago
Is it possible to tell how many of those hit the front page? I think the majority of those 300 stories in 2020 did not hit the front page. I'm curious how many there were in years prior as well.

lawik 6y ago

It is growing and having good adoption. Not a huge language but it also has a fair share of novel features (being built on Erlang) that aren't commonly seen with other langs. So I think it might have a disproportionate visibility compared to size. Lots of work happening in the community, lots of ambitious ideas and releases.

joelbluminator 6y ago
Why do you say its growing?
- lawik 6y ago
  It recently hit top 50 on one of the big lists of programming languages and I see more people getting into it every day. It is growing unless there's s lsrge drain hole somewhere. Might not be growing relative to other larger langs but I'm fairly certain it is growing. And I've heard a lot of concern about it being niche so I tend to mention that it is growing. Because in my experience the biche is quite large and .. growing. I find plenty of work.
  - joelbluminator 6y ago
    There's quite a disconnect between the amount of attention it gets on HN and the fact it's not in the top 40 languages. I mean Tiobe index has it behind Lua, Lisp and RPG (?). So yes you can definitely say it's a niche.
    - 1_player 6y ago
      This is a forum composed mostly of software engineers working on web technologies in young companies or startups, which means we're usually at the bleeding edge of computing. The TIOBE Index represents the world of computing at large, including embedded development, industrial, financial, automotive, medical, hardware, etc. This is why C and Java are at the top of the TIOBE index and I'll argue will be there for the next 40 years, and doesn't mean that any language which is not C or Java are unpopular or niche. Ours might be a small percentage of total computing, but would you argue that web technologies/the Internet as a whole is a niche? There is a reason the embedded world still uses C, and there is a reason the web world doesn't. Using the TIOBE index as popularity contest is misguided.
      - joelbluminator 6y ago
        Elixir is niche. It's number 48 in Tiobe, in Redmonk it's not in the top 20, in Stackoverflow yearly surveys it dropped out of the list (too little usage). You mean to tell me a programming language not in the top 40 isn't niche? Hey I'm a Rubyist and I acknowledge the fact Ruby is niche (in some cities/countries you will have difficulty getting a Ruby job), yet even Ruby is way more popular than Elixir.

cultofmetatron 6y ago

A bunch of startups including my own bet big on elixir 2 years ago and are starting to launch and gain prominence. the first wave of early adopters are coming out with battle stories to share and the conclusion is that elixir is the real deal.

bmitc 6y ago
> ... the conclusion is that elixir is the real deal This makes me even more excited to start an upcoming new position writing Elixir full-time!