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Coming from Ruby, I was pretty excited to see Elixir[0] (and before that, Reia[1]), a language that runs on the Erlang VM but is more approachable for me syntac

Coming from Ruby, I was pretty excited to see Elixir[0] (and before that, Reia[1]), a language that runs on the Erlang VM but is more approachable for me syntactically and that adds some interesting features. I think it's worth checking out for anyone who wants to 'learn them some Erlang' over winter break. [0]: https://github.com/josevalim/elixir https://github.com/josevalim/elixir [1]: http://reia-lang.org/ http://reia-lang.org/ (abandoned; author points user to Elixir now)

peerst 15y ago
Syntax is not as important at all. Semantics is important. If you think about a piece of code you should have AST's in your mind anyway -- not strings of characters.
- davidw 15y ago
  Disagree completely: the language is there to make programming the computer easier for me, the human. If I have to parse it in my head, it has failed at that, at least for 'everyday use'. In particular, one place where Erlang gets in your way is if you swap two lines of code, there's a good chance you'll have to check the "ant turd token" at the end of the line, and change it. It's certainly not an insurmountable difficulty, but it is an annoyance.
  - tlack 15y ago
    Honest question: do you find yourself really thinking about a languages syntax after you've spent 40-50 hours coding in it? To me it kind of fades into the background, becomes hard wired in my brain. (I'm not suggesting I'm an awesome coder or anything of course)
    - sausagefeet 15y ago
      In C++, yes.
    - davidw 15y ago
      Mostly, yes, but the line endings in Erlang fail the "don't make me think" test. They make you stop and look and make sure everything is in the right place. It's not that big a deal, and the language has lots of other great qualities, so I wouldn't get too hung up on it, but it's not fair to say it's not irritating.
- signa11 15y ago
  > Syntax is not as important at all. syntax is a language's UI, thoughtful, clean and consistent design matters...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- waffle_ss 15y ago
  Well according to the Elixir docs it does make a bit of difference in terms of homoiconicity[0] (that famous Lisp property of code=data, data=code), which makes meta-programming easier. Also, would you rather code brainfuck or C using pointers (both being semantically identical)? ;) [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoiconic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoiconic
waffle_ss 15y ago
I just realized that the Elixir README file has been trimmed quite a bit. There used to be a good overview of the language there. Here is a commit that has a lot more info on it: https://github.com/josevalim/elixir/blob/530d24dcb173148da2bb5afd79a631aeb1defe75/README.md https://github.com/josevalim/elixir/blob/530d24dcb173148da2b...
sausagefeet 15y ago
Erlang syntax might look weird at first, if coming from Ruby/Python, but I think you're giving up too early. Yes, Erlang looks different, but after an hour of playing with it you come to realize one important thing: the syntax is weird but there is an incredibly small amount. Relative to languages like Python and Java, Erlang has a small syntactic footprint. Relative to C++ you need a logarithmic graph.
- gordonguthrie 15y ago
  I came to Erlang from Ruby and it did look wierd. But now after 7 years Ruby looks odd :) I really struggle just reading Ruby now - and it was my main language for a couple of years. Writing Ruby - nae chance...

peerst 15y ago

Syntax is not as important at all. Semantics is important. If you think about a piece of code you should have AST's in your mind anyway -- not strings of characters.

davidw 15y ago
Disagree completely: the language is there to make programming the computer easier for me, the human. If I have to parse it in my head, it has failed at that, at least for 'everyday use'. In particular, one place where Erlang gets in your way is if you swap two lines of code, there's a good chance you'll have to check the "ant turd token" at the end of the line, and change it. It's certainly not an insurmountable difficulty, but it is an annoyance.
- tlack 15y ago
  Honest question: do you find yourself really thinking about a languages syntax after you've spent 40-50 hours coding in it? To me it kind of fades into the background, becomes hard wired in my brain. (I'm not suggesting I'm an awesome coder or anything of course)
  - sausagefeet 15y ago
    In C++, yes.
  - davidw 15y ago
    Mostly, yes, but the line endings in Erlang fail the "don't make me think" test. They make you stop and look and make sure everything is in the right place. It's not that big a deal, and the language has lots of other great qualities, so I wouldn't get too hung up on it, but it's not fair to say it's not irritating.
signa11 15y ago
> Syntax is not as important at all. syntax is a language's UI, thoughtful, clean and consistent design matters...
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
waffle_ss 15y ago
Well according to the Elixir docs it does make a bit of difference in terms of homoiconicity[0] (that famous Lisp property of code=data, data=code), which makes meta-programming easier. Also, would you rather code brainfuck or C using pointers (both being semantically identical)? ;) [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoiconic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoiconic

waffle_ss 15y ago

I just realized that the Elixir README file has been trimmed quite a bit. There used to be a good overview of the language there. Here is a commit that has a lot more info on it: https://github.com/josevalim/elixir/blob/530d24dcb173148da2bb5afd79a631aeb1defe75/README.md https://github.com/josevalim/elixir/blob/530d24dcb173148da2b...

sausagefeet 15y ago

Erlang syntax might look weird at first, if coming from Ruby/Python, but I think you're giving up too early. Yes, Erlang looks different, but after an hour of playing with it you come to realize one important thing: the syntax is weird but there is an incredibly small amount. Relative to languages like Python and Java, Erlang has a small syntactic footprint. Relative to C++ you need a logarithmic graph.

gordonguthrie 15y ago
I came to Erlang from Ruby and it did look wierd. But now after 7 years Ruby looks odd :) I really struggle just reading Ruby now - and it was my main language for a couple of years. Writing Ruby - nae chance...