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I'm currently working on a greenfield project that is a rewrite of a smaller portion of a larger app I worked on several years ago. Normally I wouldn't advocat

I'm currently working on a greenfield project that is a rewrite of a smaller portion of a larger app I worked on several years ago. Normally I wouldn't advocate for a rewrite, but the business has since been re-imagined and vastly simplified. Incidentally, I'm also doing it in Elixir. Not only do you not suffer from the "blank page", you can are privy to all the mistakes made before. Of course, you're now open to make a bunch of new mistakes, but that's ok—there's still the benefit of tons of knowledge from the original project. Furthermore, the Elixir ecosystem really helps mitigate that "too many tools" feeling.

benzible 3y ago
I've done a lot of greenfield web application projects and my current stack of choice is also Elixir / Phoenix / LiveView. An opinionated stack solves a lot of the issues the author mentions. He also seems to be mixing in product / UX concerns with implementation concerns.
- sodapopcan 3y ago
  It does make life so much easier. My whole stack is Elixir, Postgres, a bit of Vanilla JS, Tailwind (which isn’t strictly needed but I love it), and libvips (we do lots of stuff with images). Esbuild is in the mix for assets but no npm! And no web API!
  - sph 3y ago
    Same stack here, I just use Stimulus instead of Vanilla JS because it pairs well with Live View, it is sane and simple. Put everything in a container, stick it in a dedicated server at Hetzner, and Bob's your uncle.
    - sodapopcan 3y ago
      I gotta look into Hetzner. Their servers are in the EU no? Or are they viable for an NA app? I know I can google this stuff but just interested in your high level experience since you have the same stack.
      - sph 3y ago
        They're German but AFAIK they recently opened a datacenter in the US East and one in US West. They're much cheaper than the other offerings. I pay €35/mo for a 32GB RAM, 8-core, 2x SSD dedicated server with unlimited traffic. Elixir flies on that.
        sodapopcan 3y ago
        Awesome, thanks for the info!
        intelVISA 3y ago
        Kinda expensive when I checked their offerings. They charge €40pcm for an i7-4770, 32GB RAM, 2x SSD which can be bought for around €100 from any IT surplus (given it's around a decade old) and thrown in a libre/GPL colo at your local hacker space for single digits pcm.
        markatto 3y ago
        That’s not their best hardware deal, but you also have to understand that you are paying for rack space, electricity, bandwidth, on-site staff for repairs, etc. They are actually absurdly inexpensive compared to competitors.
        intelVISA 3y ago
        Fair, I looked at their other offerings and saw current gen specs at competitive rates - in that case we are agreed that's a lot better than most others.
        sph 3y ago
        I got a i7-7700k which is more recent and cheaper than that, so it's overall a good deal. EDIT: just the mobo, CPU and RAM is $300 on eBay. And let me know which hackerspace has a dedicated maintenance team, SLA guarantees, unlimited traffic. Apples and oranges. I'm trying to run a business here, not run a Minecraft server. Should I really be penny-pinching on what is $50/mo? It's two pizzas, at current market rates.

benzible 3y ago

I've done a lot of greenfield web application projects and my current stack of choice is also Elixir / Phoenix / LiveView. An opinionated stack solves a lot of the issues the author mentions. He also seems to be mixing in product / UX concerns with implementation concerns.

sodapopcan 3y ago
It does make life so much easier. My whole stack is Elixir, Postgres, a bit of Vanilla JS, Tailwind (which isn’t strictly needed but I love it), and libvips (we do lots of stuff with images). Esbuild is in the mix for assets but no npm! And no web API!
- sph 3y ago
  Same stack here, I just use Stimulus instead of Vanilla JS because it pairs well with Live View, it is sane and simple. Put everything in a container, stick it in a dedicated server at Hetzner, and Bob's your uncle.
  - sodapopcan 3y ago
    I gotta look into Hetzner. Their servers are in the EU no? Or are they viable for an NA app? I know I can google this stuff but just interested in your high level experience since you have the same stack.
    - sph 3y ago
      They're German but AFAIK they recently opened a datacenter in the US East and one in US West. They're much cheaper than the other offerings. I pay €35/mo for a 32GB RAM, 8-core, 2x SSD dedicated server with unlimited traffic. Elixir flies on that.
      - sodapopcan 3y ago
        Awesome, thanks for the info!
      - intelVISA 3y ago
        Kinda expensive when I checked their offerings. They charge €40pcm for an i7-4770, 32GB RAM, 2x SSD which can be bought for around €100 from any IT surplus (given it's around a decade old) and thrown in a libre/GPL colo at your local hacker space for single digits pcm.
        markatto 3y ago
        That’s not their best hardware deal, but you also have to understand that you are paying for rack space, electricity, bandwidth, on-site staff for repairs, etc. They are actually absurdly inexpensive compared to competitors.
        intelVISA 3y ago
        Fair, I looked at their other offerings and saw current gen specs at competitive rates - in that case we are agreed that's a lot better than most others.
        sph 3y ago
        I got a i7-7700k which is more recent and cheaper than that, so it's overall a good deal. EDIT: just the mobo, CPU and RAM is $300 on eBay. And let me know which hackerspace has a dedicated maintenance team, SLA guarantees, unlimited traffic. Apples and oranges. I'm trying to run a business here, not run a Minecraft server. Should I really be penny-pinching on what is $50/mo? It's two pizzas, at current market rates.