2 ms·

I've never heard of Gleam. Out of curiosity, what does it buy you over something like Elixir? Or rather, why do people prefer it over Elixir (or vanilla Erlang

I've never heard of Gleam. Out of curiosity, what does it buy you over something like Elixir? Or rather, why do people prefer it over Elixir (or vanilla Erlang or Joxa or LFE)? ETA: I'm an idiot, I didn't see the "type safe" word on there. That is something worth considering.

abrookewood 2y ago
Also worth remembering that Elixir is now a 'gradually typed system': https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38914407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38914407
- williamdclt 2y ago
  I don't know what José meant by "officially", but as far as I could see it's still not something that can be actually used. I read it'd be available in 1.17.0 which still isn't out. I found the comms around typing very confusing, it took me an hour to figure out "is there some damn typing in Elixir or is there not??"
  - gregors 2y ago
    Completely agree. I think they were just excited to make progress but it's not out for anyone to use. I was definitely confused by the comms.
  - mtndew4brkfst 2y ago
    1.17 is in release candidate as of last week, but keeping your expectations moderate is definitely still advisable.
  - andypants 2y ago
    The RC for 1.17 is out, and the notes will tell you what type checks are included: https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/tag/v1.17.0-rc.0 https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/tag/v1.17.0-r...
guims767 2y ago
It advertises itself as having a "familiar and modern" syntax where Elixir has a more ruby-like one.
madeofpalk 2y ago
This article does the one great thing - the first setence of this announcement post tells you what Gleam actually is. Other projects should take note. Fly's posts do a great job of this also https://fly.io/blog/skip-the-api/ https://fly.io/blog/skip-the-api/ Edit: lol - I just saw on the homepage that Fly sponsors Gleam.
weatherlight 2y ago
It's type safe, it's important to note that its type system is a Hindley–Milner type system. Same type system family as OCaml, Haskell, Standard ML etc. Its syntax is heavily inspired by Rust. whereas Elixir's syntax is inspired by Ruby and Erlang's inspired by prolog. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley–Milner_type_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley–Milner_type_system

abrookewood 2y ago

Also worth remembering that Elixir is now a 'gradually typed system': https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38914407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38914407

williamdclt 2y ago
I don't know what José meant by "officially", but as far as I could see it's still not something that can be actually used. I read it'd be available in 1.17.0 which still isn't out. I found the comms around typing very confusing, it took me an hour to figure out "is there some damn typing in Elixir or is there not??"
- gregors 2y ago
  Completely agree. I think they were just excited to make progress but it's not out for anyone to use. I was definitely confused by the comms.
- mtndew4brkfst 2y ago
  1.17 is in release candidate as of last week, but keeping your expectations moderate is definitely still advisable.
- andypants 2y ago
  The RC for 1.17 is out, and the notes will tell you what type checks are included: https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/tag/v1.17.0-rc.0 https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/tag/v1.17.0-r...

guims767 2y ago

It advertises itself as having a "familiar and modern" syntax where Elixir has a more ruby-like one.

madeofpalk 2y ago

This article does the one great thing - the first setence of this announcement post tells you what Gleam actually is. Other projects should take note. Fly's posts do a great job of this also https://fly.io/blog/skip-the-api/ https://fly.io/blog/skip-the-api/ Edit: lol - I just saw on the homepage that Fly sponsors Gleam.

weatherlight 2y ago

It's type safe, it's important to note that its type system is a Hindley–Milner type system. Same type system family as OCaml, Haskell, Standard ML etc. Its syntax is heavily inspired by Rust. whereas Elixir's syntax is inspired by Ruby and Erlang's inspired by prolog. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley–Milner_type_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley–Milner_type_system