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> I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code For the last five years, I’ve requested an Elixir client. I wish they would eithe

> I've used their Golang API client as inspiration many times in my own code For the last five years, I’ve requested an Elixir client. I wish they would either build one or greatly improve the docs for people who aren’t using one of their first party API client libraries. It’s not like Stripe lacks the resources. In fact an argument could be made that ignoring all but the most popular handful of languages runs counter to their goal of increasing the GDP of the internet. Increased friction for adopting new and productive languages means fewer do and devs remain in a slightly more ossified ecosystem.

andy_ppp 4y ago
Completely agree, I also had this problem but I guess that is one downsides of using a language that isn't particularly mainstream. Still with thousands of programmers it would be worth the return on the small investment.
- reducesuffering 4y ago
  They have libraries for: iOS, Android, React Native, Javascript, Ruby, Python, Go, PHP, Java, .NET. Have you seen how prevalent Elixir is statistically? It's actually pretty niche and downtrending[0]. Where do you draw the line? Where's the Nix, Julia, Nim, Rust, and Crystal libraries? It's good to express the desire for it so that it might be next in line, but these comments make it seem like it's an expectation, even when those libraries are all open source and are able to be whipped up by the community. You're correct that these are the downsides in building on something that isn't very mainstream. [0] https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=java%2Cjavascript%2C.net%2Cpython%2Cgo%2Cphp%2Cruby%2Celixir https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=java%2Cjavasc...
  - AlchemistCamp 4y ago
    I don't think it's down trending at all. Just look at the most recent Hiring thread on this forum! Based on what I've been seeing, Elixir has been growing faster the past year or two than it was previously. Elixir Forum's posts and active users are going up and that's where people tend to ask their questions, rather than Stack Overflow. In fact, the lack of support from companies like Stripe is the single top complaint I hear. Most users are very happy with the language, tooling and community. FWIW, I'd like to see a Stripe Rust lib, also. But it's far more important to just be make the guides better for people who aren't using a Stripe API client and maybe even make a guide for making a compliant API client. That way, you can be programming in something truly niche like Janet and still have a great experience with Stripe. The information is all there, but it takes way more digging than it should to get at it.
    - andy_ppp 4y ago
      I wonder if there is a format for API -> client automation that can be good enough, in the end Stripe have a rest API, with enough description it should be possible. Okay so after a quick google it appears Microsoft are the "Simpsons already done it" of the programming world: https://github.com/Azure/autorest/ https://github.com/Azure/autorest/ It'd probably be a good idea to add an Elixir backend for that and point it at the Stripe's API here: https://github.com/stripe/openapi https://github.com/stripe/openapi
      - AlchemistCamp 4y ago
        Interesting... I've spent a fair amount of time looking at Stripe docs while working on various projects over the years and never seen the openapi link before! Purely in terms of seeing what structs are used in what what on what endpoints, the docs are fine. It's really when it comes to guides that it falls over since they invariably lean on language-specific API clients. This makes it easy to miss how headers are constructed, the required security-related details for webhooks, etc.
- ZephyrBlu 4y ago
  Whether ROI is positive or negative is not the correct thing to consider. Opportunity Cost is more important. Why would they create an Elixir client if there is something else they could do which has higher positive impact?

andy_ppp 4y ago

Completely agree, I also had this problem but I guess that is one downsides of using a language that isn't particularly mainstream. Still with thousands of programmers it would be worth the return on the small investment.

reducesuffering 4y ago
They have libraries for: iOS, Android, React Native, Javascript, Ruby, Python, Go, PHP, Java, .NET. Have you seen how prevalent Elixir is statistically? It's actually pretty niche and downtrending[0]. Where do you draw the line? Where's the Nix, Julia, Nim, Rust, and Crystal libraries? It's good to express the desire for it so that it might be next in line, but these comments make it seem like it's an expectation, even when those libraries are all open source and are able to be whipped up by the community. You're correct that these are the downsides in building on something that isn't very mainstream. [0] https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=java%2Cjavascript%2C.net%2Cpython%2Cgo%2Cphp%2Cruby%2Celixir https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=java%2Cjavasc...
- AlchemistCamp 4y ago
  I don't think it's down trending at all. Just look at the most recent Hiring thread on this forum! Based on what I've been seeing, Elixir has been growing faster the past year or two than it was previously. Elixir Forum's posts and active users are going up and that's where people tend to ask their questions, rather than Stack Overflow. In fact, the lack of support from companies like Stripe is the single top complaint I hear. Most users are very happy with the language, tooling and community. FWIW, I'd like to see a Stripe Rust lib, also. But it's far more important to just be make the guides better for people who aren't using a Stripe API client and maybe even make a guide for making a compliant API client. That way, you can be programming in something truly niche like Janet and still have a great experience with Stripe. The information is all there, but it takes way more digging than it should to get at it.
  - andy_ppp 4y ago
    I wonder if there is a format for API -> client automation that can be good enough, in the end Stripe have a rest API, with enough description it should be possible. Okay so after a quick google it appears Microsoft are the "Simpsons already done it" of the programming world: https://github.com/Azure/autorest/ https://github.com/Azure/autorest/ It'd probably be a good idea to add an Elixir backend for that and point it at the Stripe's API here: https://github.com/stripe/openapi https://github.com/stripe/openapi
    - AlchemistCamp 4y ago
      Interesting... I've spent a fair amount of time looking at Stripe docs while working on various projects over the years and never seen the openapi link before! Purely in terms of seeing what structs are used in what what on what endpoints, the docs are fine. It's really when it comes to guides that it falls over since they invariably lean on language-specific API clients. This makes it easy to miss how headers are constructed, the required security-related details for webhooks, etc.
ZephyrBlu 4y ago
Whether ROI is positive or negative is not the correct thing to consider. Opportunity Cost is more important. Why would they create an Elixir client if there is something else they could do which has higher positive impact?