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Oh, author here. I absolutely do simply prefer it but I also think it has distinct upside compared to Python in this context. I see a number of companies orches

by lawik 3y ago

Oh, author here. I absolutely do simply prefer it but I also think it has distinct upside compared to Python in this context. I see a number of companies orchestrating their Python ML with Elixir. For them the advantage is even more obvious. But overall Elixir has certain strengths. It also has drawbacks and trade-offs. I would absokutely write the post "Why I prefer Elixir" and I think I have. But this was not intended to be that.

pg_1234 3y ago
The reality is that neither Python nor Elixir is performant enough to do the actual work of ML, that is all going to be wrapped libraries in C, C++ ... Rust? And while Elixir may be as well suited as Python to being the interface/scripting language for ML tasks, Python has a pretty unassailable lead here with an overwhelmingly dominant ecosystem. Elixir could be used to build and manage pipelines (like a roll-your-own Jenkins) in this area, and in this regard (concurrency, reliability, async) it is probably a significantly better language than Python, but the actual tasks on the pipeline will need to be defined in Python, just because it's use is so entrenched. Also, the "reinvent something another language can already do" pitch is going to become a much harder sell in today's funding market as the silly money dries up.
- sodapopcan 3y ago
  A lot of comments here seem to be framed around the idea that Elixir is aiming to some day dethrone Python. Knowing the Elixir ecosystem, I wouldn't even say it's the case that it's trying to gain equal market share. The Explorer library even calls out: "The aim here isn't to have the fastest dataframe library around". There seems to be a significant interest within the Elixir community around this and, as a non-data scientist who needs to do some analytics sometimes, I certainly appreciate having powerful tools like this without having to step outside Elixir. I've never had to learn about Python tooling and I'm happy to keep it that way!

by lawik 3y ago

pg_1234 3y ago

The reality is that neither Python nor Elixir is performant enough to do the actual work of ML, that is all going to be wrapped libraries in C, C++ ... Rust? And while Elixir may be as well suited as Python to being the interface/scripting language for ML tasks, Python has a pretty unassailable lead here with an overwhelmingly dominant ecosystem. Elixir could be used to build and manage pipelines (like a roll-your-own Jenkins) in this area, and in this regard (concurrency, reliability, async) it is probably a significantly better language than Python, but the actual tasks on the pipeline will need to be defined in Python, just because it's use is so entrenched. Also, the "reinvent something another language can already do" pitch is going to become a much harder sell in today's funding market as the silly money dries up.

sodapopcan 3y ago
A lot of comments here seem to be framed around the idea that Elixir is aiming to some day dethrone Python. Knowing the Elixir ecosystem, I wouldn't even say it's the case that it's trying to gain equal market share. The Explorer library even calls out: "The aim here isn't to have the fastest dataframe library around". There seems to be a significant interest within the Elixir community around this and, as a non-data scientist who needs to do some analytics sometimes, I certainly appreciate having powerful tools like this without having to step outside Elixir. I've never had to learn about Python tooling and I'm happy to keep it that way!