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I mean being mainstream helps. More blogs, more Stackoverflow answers, more battle tested libraries. A Java or Python business are 100% positive they will find

I mean being mainstream helps. More blogs, more Stackoverflow answers, more battle tested libraries. A Java or Python business are 100% positive they will find devs 20 years from now and the ecosystem won't die. Php, Go, Ruby? Lets say 80% sure. With Elixir its very hard to say what's going to happen. Its quite possible it will go the way of Perl eventually. I don't know what F# or Ocaml are good for but if you are starting a business you need a pretty compelling reason to use those instead of something mainstream. Being mainstream helps a lot I wouldn't underestimate it.

sergiomattei 5y ago
Elixir is gaining momentum, though. It just made it into top 50 TIOBE index. Projects like Nerves for IoT, Nx, etc are giving it life in new applications and industries. It's never going to be a top 5 language, but it's on its way to become a well-known language with a strong community.
- joelbluminator 5y ago
  > but it's on its way to become a well-known language with a strong community I agree it has a strong community for its size. It remains to be seen what happens 5 years from now when the hype settles (It arguably already is happening). Some languages reach sizes where it's impossible to die out even though they are declining (PHP for example. Probably Ruby as well). Perl seems to have gone extinct though, probably due to competition in the web sphere and also poor decision making (Perl 6 etc). It's impossible to know what's in store for Elixir; I do see a lot of love and excitement by Elixir devs so that's a reason to be optimistic I guess.
  - sergiomattei 5y ago
    I'd honestly argue the hype already settled. Elixir peaked in hype and mind share near 2016, where everyone was calling it the Rails killer. There were articles about it every day and the language burst into the scene with incredible force. Since then, the community has matured, many have either moved out or settled with it. It's gaining momentum but the strong and steady kind, not the overhype kind. There isn't this infatuation over it anymore as we used to see those days. Elixir is now in the strong, mature community stage. It's not hype anymore, it's the period of subdued stability and steady growth.
    - joelbluminator 5y ago
      It definitely wasn't the Rails killer people thought it would be though. It remains to be seen if devs want to be a part of a small community (albeit strong and passionate) because now it's clear that it is small.
codeptualize 5y ago
My point is that there is a place for technology that is not-mainstream and that there are plenty of (successful) projects build on things that are not mainstream. In my opinion "mainstream" is not a good factor to select technology on. The factors you mention can be important, but then select based on those not on "mainstream" or not. If you need longevity, pick something based on that, if you need tons of resources, select on that, but not a lot of projects need to live 20 years, and plenty of people prefer well written docs over an abundance in stack overflow answers. Also mainstream does not mean longevity. Take for example Python 2->3, that was quite stressful to say the least. Plenty of once mainstream languages and technologies are dead or slowly dying, it's very hard to predict. Continuing on the longevity point, it might be good to note Erlang/BEAM — that Elixer runs on — is older than most languages you mention, still actively used, maintained and developed. So I could very well argue Elixir/Erlang is as safe a bet as any of them. Lastly I don't think it's true that Elixir is niche enough that this should be a discussion point at all. If you have giant companies running and backing Elixir/Erlang, it's pretty safe to say its battle tested enough and will be around long enough for a lot if not most projects. Mainstream isn't everything, I wouldn't overestimate it, there are better ways to choose technologies.

sergiomattei 5y ago

Elixir is gaining momentum, though. It just made it into top 50 TIOBE index. Projects like Nerves for IoT, Nx, etc are giving it life in new applications and industries. It's never going to be a top 5 language, but it's on its way to become a well-known language with a strong community.

joelbluminator 5y ago
> but it's on its way to become a well-known language with a strong community I agree it has a strong community for its size. It remains to be seen what happens 5 years from now when the hype settles (It arguably already is happening). Some languages reach sizes where it's impossible to die out even though they are declining (PHP for example. Probably Ruby as well). Perl seems to have gone extinct though, probably due to competition in the web sphere and also poor decision making (Perl 6 etc). It's impossible to know what's in store for Elixir; I do see a lot of love and excitement by Elixir devs so that's a reason to be optimistic I guess.
- sergiomattei 5y ago
  I'd honestly argue the hype already settled. Elixir peaked in hype and mind share near 2016, where everyone was calling it the Rails killer. There were articles about it every day and the language burst into the scene with incredible force. Since then, the community has matured, many have either moved out or settled with it. It's gaining momentum but the strong and steady kind, not the overhype kind. There isn't this infatuation over it anymore as we used to see those days. Elixir is now in the strong, mature community stage. It's not hype anymore, it's the period of subdued stability and steady growth.
  - joelbluminator 5y ago
    It definitely wasn't the Rails killer people thought it would be though. It remains to be seen if devs want to be a part of a small community (albeit strong and passionate) because now it's clear that it is small.

codeptualize 5y ago

My point is that there is a place for technology that is not-mainstream and that there are plenty of (successful) projects build on things that are not mainstream. In my opinion "mainstream" is not a good factor to select technology on. The factors you mention can be important, but then select based on those not on "mainstream" or not. If you need longevity, pick something based on that, if you need tons of resources, select on that, but not a lot of projects need to live 20 years, and plenty of people prefer well written docs over an abundance in stack overflow answers. Also mainstream does not mean longevity. Take for example Python 2->3, that was quite stressful to say the least. Plenty of once mainstream languages and technologies are dead or slowly dying, it's very hard to predict. Continuing on the longevity point, it might be good to note Erlang/BEAM — that Elixer runs on — is older than most languages you mention, still actively used, maintained and developed. So I could very well argue Elixir/Erlang is as safe a bet as any of them. Lastly I don't think it's true that Elixir is niche enough that this should be a discussion point at all. If you have giant companies running and backing Elixir/Erlang, it's pretty safe to say its battle tested enough and will be around long enough for a lot if not most projects. Mainstream isn't everything, I wouldn't overestimate it, there are better ways to choose technologies.