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I can’t reply directly to the comment below yours, so it will be as a side comment. I don’t think anyone is arguing Elixir isn’t niche, we are just explaining

I can’t reply directly to the comment below yours, so it will be as a side comment. I don’t think anyone is arguing Elixir isn’t niche, we are just explaining why Elixir gets attention on HN even though it is top 50 on TIOBE. HN itself is focused on certain domains and tends to be early adopters.

joelbluminator 5y ago
I think a lot of Elixir devs think or want to believe Elixir is bigger than it really is. That's what I understand from the guy I made the comment to. Now I don't enjoy popping people's bubbles but I think it's better for everyone to acknowledge the truth and then think how to deal with it.
- 1_player 5y ago
  > Now I don't enjoy popping people's bubbles but I think it's better for everyone to acknowledge the truth and then think how to deal with it. How to deal with what? That Elixir isn't as popular, so I should tell my company to drop it? I should stop enjoying programming in it? Sorry, sounds like you don't want to accept that Elixir is on the up, for whatever reason. Yes, it's not super popular. Yes, people are being productive with it. I don't get the point of your comment.
  - joelbluminator 5y ago
    I won't tell you what to do with it, but the fact is Elixir is not on the up, it's very niche (nichier than even Rust is) and it's probably starting to decline already. Look at Linkedin jobs Lisp - 142 Clojure - 700 Elixir - 828 Rust - 3160 Golang - 9205 Ruby - 24353 PHP - 68444 Java - 132606 So Elixir, at its peak, has about the amount of jobs Clojure has (never knew anyone using Clojure btw). That's quite a niche, ±800 jobs in the entire U.S is very very little. You might not care or have any action items from these facts, others may. As for companies - I would never choose something like Clojure/Elixir for my startup that's quite crazy considering the small eco system.
    - 1_player 5y ago
      Sorry, where's your proof Elixir's at his peak? How can you tell from these numbers it's on the decline? > I would never choose something like Clojure/Elixir Then don't, nobody is making you. I still don't see why you want to stress so much Elixir is not a top language. From what I can tell, you have a bone to pick with the language and being confrontational with no discernible reason. Good day. EDIT: checked your post history, you're definitely being a troll on purpose on most Elixir posts.
      - joelbluminator 5y ago
        I don't think I was confrontational at all, I only listed facts on this thread. Other threads have zero relevance. Good day to you too!
    - astrowilson 5y ago
      You keep bringing up “Elixir has peaked” but you don’t provide any concrete evidence for that. The only mention so far is Stack Overflow, which is not used by the community, and such was explained to you on separate occasions. Someone mentioned Elixir has just passed top 50 on TIOBE - that’s growth. It also just crossed top 20 on GitHub by number of pull requests on Q1/2021. I am not disputing it is niche. I am not disputing the job market is tiny. But for someone who mentions acknowledging the truth, you don’t seem to be very truthful on your claims the language has peaked, especially given the last time you claimed so, you used a milestone (Top 50 on TIOBE) that has been reached since then.
      - joelbluminator 5y ago
        The problem with Elixir is it's too small to get good data on (I'm not being mean, that's the truth). Tiobe has trends only for the top 20 languages so can't use that. The best I've got is Stackoverflow survey (are you saying Elixir devs don't use Stackoverflow at all? I find it bizarre. Even if you use Elixir forum a modern dev has questions on many things he needs answered (css, javascript, sql etc). So please compare https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#most-popular-technologies https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#most-popular-... With https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-popular-technologies https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-popular-... Elixir was dropped from the list. That's definitely a sign of decline. Now it could be that on absolute terms Elixir is keeping it's usage but only dropping on relative terms but I find it a bit hard to believe. I have a feeling Elixir devs who look for the next gig use other tech more often than not.
- astrowilson 5y ago
  So what is your action plan? To keep commenting that Elixir is niche on many threads even though most people here aren’t saying otherwise? And even if they think that’s true, do you think being antagonistic to them on forums is what is going to change their mind? I remember a recent comment from you saying that Elixir has probably peaked without even crossing top 50 on TIOBE... and yet here we are.
  - joelbluminator 5y ago
    Look if you wanna shoot your career in the face go ahead stick to Elixir, the rest of us have bills to pay.
    - astrowilson 5y ago
      That’s only an issue if you define your career by a single programming language... I don’t. Regarding bills, I made my biggest salary bump after I jumped to Elixir, but I appreciate the concern.

joelbluminator 5y ago

I think a lot of Elixir devs think or want to believe Elixir is bigger than it really is. That's what I understand from the guy I made the comment to. Now I don't enjoy popping people's bubbles but I think it's better for everyone to acknowledge the truth and then think how to deal with it.

1_player 5y ago
> Now I don't enjoy popping people's bubbles but I think it's better for everyone to acknowledge the truth and then think how to deal with it. How to deal with what? That Elixir isn't as popular, so I should tell my company to drop it? I should stop enjoying programming in it? Sorry, sounds like you don't want to accept that Elixir is on the up, for whatever reason. Yes, it's not super popular. Yes, people are being productive with it. I don't get the point of your comment.
- joelbluminator 5y ago
  I won't tell you what to do with it, but the fact is Elixir is not on the up, it's very niche (nichier than even Rust is) and it's probably starting to decline already. Look at Linkedin jobs Lisp - 142 Clojure - 700 Elixir - 828 Rust - 3160 Golang - 9205 Ruby - 24353 PHP - 68444 Java - 132606 So Elixir, at its peak, has about the amount of jobs Clojure has (never knew anyone using Clojure btw). That's quite a niche, ±800 jobs in the entire U.S is very very little. You might not care or have any action items from these facts, others may. As for companies - I would never choose something like Clojure/Elixir for my startup that's quite crazy considering the small eco system.
  - 1_player 5y ago
    Sorry, where's your proof Elixir's at his peak? How can you tell from these numbers it's on the decline? > I would never choose something like Clojure/Elixir Then don't, nobody is making you. I still don't see why you want to stress so much Elixir is not a top language. From what I can tell, you have a bone to pick with the language and being confrontational with no discernible reason. Good day. EDIT: checked your post history, you're definitely being a troll on purpose on most Elixir posts.
    - joelbluminator 5y ago
      I don't think I was confrontational at all, I only listed facts on this thread. Other threads have zero relevance. Good day to you too!
  - astrowilson 5y ago
    You keep bringing up “Elixir has peaked” but you don’t provide any concrete evidence for that. The only mention so far is Stack Overflow, which is not used by the community, and such was explained to you on separate occasions. Someone mentioned Elixir has just passed top 50 on TIOBE - that’s growth. It also just crossed top 20 on GitHub by number of pull requests on Q1/2021. I am not disputing it is niche. I am not disputing the job market is tiny. But for someone who mentions acknowledging the truth, you don’t seem to be very truthful on your claims the language has peaked, especially given the last time you claimed so, you used a milestone (Top 50 on TIOBE) that has been reached since then.
    - joelbluminator 5y ago
      The problem with Elixir is it's too small to get good data on (I'm not being mean, that's the truth). Tiobe has trends only for the top 20 languages so can't use that. The best I've got is Stackoverflow survey (are you saying Elixir devs don't use Stackoverflow at all? I find it bizarre. Even if you use Elixir forum a modern dev has questions on many things he needs answered (css, javascript, sql etc). So please compare https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#most-popular-technologies https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#most-popular-... With https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-popular-technologies https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-popular-... Elixir was dropped from the list. That's definitely a sign of decline. Now it could be that on absolute terms Elixir is keeping it's usage but only dropping on relative terms but I find it a bit hard to believe. I have a feeling Elixir devs who look for the next gig use other tech more often than not.
astrowilson 5y ago
So what is your action plan? To keep commenting that Elixir is niche on many threads even though most people here aren’t saying otherwise? And even if they think that’s true, do you think being antagonistic to them on forums is what is going to change their mind? I remember a recent comment from you saying that Elixir has probably peaked without even crossing top 50 on TIOBE... and yet here we are.
- joelbluminator 5y ago
  Look if you wanna shoot your career in the face go ahead stick to Elixir, the rest of us have bills to pay.
  - astrowilson 5y ago
    That’s only an issue if you define your career by a single programming language... I don’t. Regarding bills, I made my biggest salary bump after I jumped to Elixir, but I appreciate the concern.