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200 servers running Python. I bet it was an architecture problem more than a language problem. I’d be expecting to leave most of that in place and fix the hot

200 servers running Python. I bet it was an architecture problem more than a language problem. I’d be expecting to leave most of that in place and fix the hotspots that are dragging performance down. Maybe some compiled code in certain places. Almost certainly a detailed analysis would have yielded 20 things that could be tuned. Posts like this are almost something to be ashamed of “we rewrote an entire subsystem because we wanted to use a language we like”. That’s really failing in your responsibility to the company.

pclmulqdq 3y ago
And they got a 50x reduction in server cost - 200 servers down to 4. I have never heard of a performance optimization project with such substantial gains without a complete rewrite.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  It's important to remember the BEAM is a monster. I'll believe almost anything after I've seen big projects run on such small resources. I've been busy believing anything about BEAM since Whatsapp got so big on nothing, never mind Discord.
EMM_386 3y ago
> Posts like this are almost something to be ashamed of “we rewrote an entire subsystem because we wanted to use a language we like”. That’s really failing in your responsibility to the company. I would tend to agree. I don't understand these sorts of decisions to rewrite huge sites in niche languages and frameworks. You tend to get one engineer who really likes some language, has some clout, and is able to pitch it as a good idea. And then the blog posts about how it saves the company untold millions, while hiding all of the associated costs. Not only is it niche, so your costs going forward will be higher, it even required investing in new "tools and strategies" just to bechmark it. "Elixir has proven so efficient that testing the limits of our services became a challenge unto itself, requiring investment in new benchmarking tools and strategies". I wouldn't personally gamble on a robust job market for Elixir developers in a decade. And those there are will be able to command higher wages. Sure, they will be out there. But so were COBOL developers for Y2K.
- andrewstuart 3y ago
  I know a company that built its core systems using elixir. Finding people is a nightmare. Really I can’t think of anything that would justify using a niche language over javascript/Python/C++/Golang/C#/Java. Surely one of these will get the job done.

pclmulqdq 3y ago

And they got a 50x reduction in server cost - 200 servers down to 4. I have never heard of a performance optimization project with such substantial gains without a complete rewrite.

pessimizer 3y ago
It's important to remember the BEAM is a monster. I'll believe almost anything after I've seen big projects run on such small resources. I've been busy believing anything about BEAM since Whatsapp got so big on nothing, never mind Discord.

EMM_386 3y ago

> Posts like this are almost something to be ashamed of “we rewrote an entire subsystem because we wanted to use a language we like”. That’s really failing in your responsibility to the company. I would tend to agree. I don't understand these sorts of decisions to rewrite huge sites in niche languages and frameworks. You tend to get one engineer who really likes some language, has some clout, and is able to pitch it as a good idea. And then the blog posts about how it saves the company untold millions, while hiding all of the associated costs. Not only is it niche, so your costs going forward will be higher, it even required investing in new "tools and strategies" just to bechmark it. "Elixir has proven so efficient that testing the limits of our services became a challenge unto itself, requiring investment in new benchmarking tools and strategies". I wouldn't personally gamble on a robust job market for Elixir developers in a decade. And those there are will be able to command higher wages. Sure, they will be out there. But so were COBOL developers for Y2K.

andrewstuart 3y ago
I know a company that built its core systems using elixir. Finding people is a nightmare. Really I can’t think of anything that would justify using a niche language over javascript/Python/C++/Golang/C#/Java. Surely one of these will get the job done.