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  5. Elixir vs Erlang

Elixir vs Erlang

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Erlang
Erlang
Stacks1.4K
Followers749
Votes345
GitHub Stars11.9K
Forks3.0K
Elixir
Elixir
Stacks3.5K
Followers3.3K
Votes1.3K
GitHub Stars26.0K
Forks3.5K

Elixir vs Erlang: What are the differences?

  1. Concurrent programming: One key difference between Elixir and Erlang is their approach to concurrent programming. Elixir provides a more developer-friendly syntax and tools for concurrent programming compared to Erlang. It has the concept of processes and lightweight threads called "actors" that allow for easy and efficient parallelism. Erlang, on the other hand, has a strong focus on concurrency and fault-tolerance, with its own process model and message-passing mechanisms, making it ideal for building highly scalable and fault-tolerant distributed systems.

  2. Syntax and expressiveness: Elixir is based on the Erlang VM, but it offers a more modern and expressive syntax compared to Erlang. Elixir introduces a Ruby-like syntax that is more readable and enjoyable for many developers. It also includes features like pattern matching, metaprogramming, and polymorphism, which are not as readily available in Erlang. These features make Elixir a more flexible and powerful language for developing applications.

  3. Tooling and ecosystem: Elixir has a growing and vibrant ecosystem with a rich set of libraries and tools. The language has its own package manager called Hex, which provides easy access to libraries and dependencies. Elixir also has a built-in build tool called Mix, which makes it simple to create and manage projects. In contrast, Erlang has a more mature ecosystem with a focus on stability and reliability. It has its own package manager called rebar3 and a build tool called OTP (Open Telecom Platform) that provides tools for building and deploying Erlang applications.

  4. Functional programming: Both Elixir and Erlang are functional programming languages, but Elixir takes a more "functional-first" approach compared to Erlang. Elixir encourages the use of immutable data structures and pure functions, making it easier to reason about and test code. Erlang, on the other hand, allows for more mutable state and side effects, which can make it more challenging to write and maintain code in a purely functional style.

  5. Metaprogramming: Elixir has a powerful metaprogramming system that allows developers to dynamically generate and modify code at compile-time. This feature enables powerful abstractions and code generation, making Elixir great for building frameworks and DSLs (Domain Specific Languages). Erlang, on the other hand, does not have built-in metaprogramming capabilities, which can limit the flexibility and expressiveness of the language.

  6. Community and community support: Elixir has a thriving and welcoming community that actively supports and contributes to the language. There are numerous online resources, forums, and meetups dedicated to Elixir and its ecosystem. The community is known for its friendliness and willingness to help others. Erlang also has a strong community, but it may not be as large as the Elixir community. However, Erlang benefits from being a mature language with a stable and well-established community that has been around for many years.

In summary, Elixir and Erlang have key differences in their approach to concurrent programming, syntax and expressiveness, tooling and ecosystem, functional programming, metaprogramming, and community support. While Elixir offers a more developer-friendly syntax, advanced tooling, and a powerful metaprogramming system, Erlang excels in concurrency and fault-tolerance and has a more mature and stable ecosystem.

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Advice on Erlang, Elixir

Timm
Timm

VP Of Engineering at Flexperto GmbH

Nov 10, 2020

Decided

We have a lot of experience in JavaScript, writing our services in NodeJS allows developers to transition to the back end without any friction, without having to learn a new language. There is also the option to write services in TypeScript, which adds an expressive type layer. The semi-shared ecosystem between front and back end is nice as well, though specifically NodeJS libraries sometimes suffer in quality, compared to other major languages.

As for why we didn't pick the other languages, most of it comes down to "personal preference" and historically grown code bases, but let's do some post-hoc deduction:

Go is a practical choice, reasonably easy to learn, but until we find performance issues with our NodeJS stack, there is simply no reason to switch. The benefits of using NodeJS so far outweigh those of picking Go. This might change in the future.

PHP is a language we're still using in big parts of our system, and are still sometimes writing new code in. Modern PHP has fixed some of its issues, and probably has the fastest development cycle time, but it suffers around modelling complex asynchronous tasks, and (on a personal note) lack of support for writing in a functional style.

We don't use Python, Elixir or Ruby, mostly because of personal preference and for historic reasons.

Rust, though I personally love and use it in my projects, would require us to specifically hire for that, as the learning curve is quite steep. Its web ecosystem is OK by now (see https://www.arewewebyet.org/), but in my opinion, it is still no where near that of the other web languages. In other words, we are not willing to pay the price for playing this innovation card.

Haskell, as with Rust, I personally adore, but is simply too esoteric for us. There are problem domains where it shines, ours is not one of them.

682k views682k
Comments
Jakes
Jakes

Mar 21, 2021

Decided

#rust @{#elixir}|topic:null| So am creating a messenger with voice call capabilities app which the user signs up using phone number and so at first i wanted to use Actix so i learned Rust so i thought to myself because well its first i felt its a bit immature to use actix web even though some companies are using Rust but we cant really say the full potential of Rust in a full scale app for example in Discord both Elixir and Rust are used meaning there is equal need for them but for Elixir so many companies use it from Whatsapp, Wechat, etc and this means something for Rust is not ready to go full scale we cant assume all this possibilities when it come Rust. So i decided to go the Erlang way after alot of Thinking so Do you think i made the right decision?Am 19 year programmer so i assume am not experienced as you so your answer or comment would really valuable to me

284k views284k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Erlang
Erlang
Elixir
Elixir

Some of Erlang's uses are in telecoms, banking, e-commerce, computer telephony and instant messaging. Erlang's runtime system has built-in support for concurrency, distribution and fault tolerance. OTP is set of Erlang libraries and design principles providing middle-ware to develop these systems.

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
11.9K
GitHub Stars
26.0K
GitHub Forks
3.0K
GitHub Forks
3.5K
Stacks
1.4K
Stacks
3.5K
Followers
749
Followers
3.3K
Votes
345
Votes
1.3K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 62
    Concurrency Support
  • 62
    Real time, distributed applications
  • 58
    Fault tolerance
  • 36
    Soft real-time
  • 32
    Open source
Cons
  • 1
    Languange is not popular demand
Pros
  • 174
    Concurrency
  • 163
    Functional
  • 133
    Erlang vm
  • 113
    Great documentation
  • 105
    Great tooling
Cons
  • 11
    Fewer jobs for Elixir experts
  • 7
    Smaller userbase than other mainstream languages
  • 5
    Elixir's dot notation less readable ("object": 1st arg)
  • 4
    Dynamic typing
  • 2
    Difficult to understand

What are some alternatives to Erlang, Elixir?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Swift

Swift

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.

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