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#rust #elixir 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
We’re a new startup so we need to be able to deliver quick changes as we find our product market fit. We’ve also got to ensure that we’re moving money safely, and keeping perfect records. The technologies we’ve chosen mix mature but well maintained frameworks like Django, with modern web-first and api-first front ends like GraphQL, NextJS, and Chakra. We use a little Golang sparingly in our backend to ensure that when we interact with financial services, we do so with statically compiled, strongly typed, and strictly limited and reviewed code.
You can read all about it in our linked blog post.
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.
Pros of Clojure
- It is a lisp117
- Persistent data structures100
- Concise syntax100
- jvm-based language90
- Concurrency89
- Interactive repl81
- Code is data76
- Open source61
- Lazy data structures61
- Macros57
- Functional49
- Simplistic23
- Immutable by default22
- Excellent collections20
- Fast-growing community19
- Multiple host languages15
- Simple (not easy!)15
- Practical Lisp15
- Because it's really fun to use10
- Addictive10
- Community9
- Web friendly9
- Rapid development9
- It creates Reusable code9
- Minimalist8
- Programmable programming language6
- Java interop6
- Regained interest in programming5
- Compiles to JavaScript4
- Share a lot of code with clojurescript/use on frontend3
- EDN3
- Clojurescript1
Pros of Elixir
- Concurrency172
- Functional161
- Erlang vm133
- Great documentation112
- Great tooling105
- Immutable data structures86
- Open source81
- Pattern-matching77
- Easy to get started62
- Actor library59
- Functional with a neat syntax32
- Ruby inspired29
- Erlang evolved25
- Homoiconic24
- Beauty of Ruby, Speed of Erlang/C22
- Fault Tolerant17
- Simple14
- High Performance13
- Pipe Operator11
- Good lang11
- Doc as first class citizen11
- Stinkin' fast, no memory leaks, easy on the eyes9
- Fun to write9
- Resilient to failure8
- OTP8
- GenServer takes the guesswork out of background work6
- Not Swift4
- Pattern matching4
- Idempotence4
- Fast, Concurrent with clean error messages4
- Easy to use3
- Dynamic Typing2
- Error isolation2
Pros of Perl
- Lots of libraries72
- Open source66
- Text processing61
- Powerful54
- Unix-style49
- Regex47
- Stable37
- Concise syntax32
- Hackerish29
- Easy to use22
- Swiss army chainsaw15
- Code Less Do More13
- CPAN12
- Freedom9
- All purpose8
- Many ways to do it5
- Familiar5
- Readability5
- Community5
- Modular4
- Smart (does alot for you)4
- Object-Oriented4
- Postmodern3
- It's the best one-off task language3
- For a man2
- Good man pages2
- Auto case variables1
- Single Source Library (CPAN)1
- Multi-threaded support1
- Hashes1
- C-style1
- Multiparadigm1
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Cons of Clojure
- Cryptic stacktraces11
- Need to wrap basically every java lib5
- Toxic community4
- Good code heavily relies on local conventions3
- Tonns of abandonware3
- Slow application startup3
- Usable only with REPL1
- Hiring issues1
- It's a lisp1
- Bad documented libs1
- Macros are overused by devs1
- Tricky profiling1
- IDE with high learning curve1
- Configuration bolierplate1
- Conservative community1
- Have no good and fast fmt0
Cons of Elixir
- Fewer jobs for Elixir experts11
- Smaller userbase than other mainstream languages7
- Elixir's dot notation less readable ("object": 1st arg)5
- Dynamic typing4
- Difficult to understand1
- Not a lot of learning books available1
Cons of Perl
- Messy $/@/% syntax4
- No exception handling3
- Bad OO support2
- "1;"2
- No OS threads2
- Variables are global by default1
- Copy-on-create for interpreter-based threads1
- Barewords1
- Errors/warnings are ignored by default1