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Crystal vs Elixir: What are the differences?
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Syntax: Crystal has a syntax that closely resembles Ruby, offering familiarity to Ruby developers, while Elixir has a syntax inspired by Erlang, providing a functional programming style that may be new to some developers.
Concurrent Programming Model: Elixir uses the actor model for concurrent programming, allowing lightweight processes to communicate via message passing, while Crystal utilizes green threads for concurrency, enabling parallel execution of tasks within the same process.
Compilation: Crystal code is compiled ahead of time to machine code, providing high performance similar to compiled languages like C, while Elixir is compiled to bytecode which runs on the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM), emphasizing fault tolerance and distributed computing.
Metaprogramming: Crystal offers powerful metaprogramming capabilities, allowing developers to generate code at compile time, while Elixir supports metaprogramming through macros, providing flexibility in code transformation.
Static Typing: Crystal is statically typed, enabling compile-time type checking for additional safety and optimization, while Elixir is dynamically typed, offering more flexibility but reduced compile-time guarantees.
Community and Ecosystem: Elixir has a larger community and ecosystem due to its roots in Erlang and long-term support from companies like WhatsApp, offering extensive libraries and resources, while Crystal has a smaller but growing community with a focus on performance and simplicity.
In Summary, Crystal and Elixir differ in syntax, concurrent programming model, compilation, metaprogramming, static typing, and community support.
#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 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 Crystal
- Compiles to efficient native code38
- Ruby inspired syntax36
- Performance oriented - C-like speeds32
- Gem-like packages, called Shards23
- Can call C code using Crystal bindings20
- Super Fast18
- Typed Ruby <318
- Open Source17
- Minimal Runtime14
- Cute11
- Clean code9
- Concurrent9
- Productive9
- Great community4
- Powerful2
- Program compiled into a single binary2
- Simplicity2
- Meta-Programming (via Macros)2
- Feels like duck types, safe like static types2
- Null Safety2
- Type inference2
- Has builtin LLVM support library1
- Statically linked binaries that are simple to deploy1
- Fun to write1
- High-performance1
- Simple, minimal syntax1
- Compile time statically safe macros1
- Concise1
- Statically Safe Monkey Patching1
- Fibers1
- Spawn1
- Meta-programming1
- Productivity1
- Elegant1
- Cross-platform1
Pros of Elixir
- Concurrency173
- 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
- Fun to write9
- Stinkin' fast, no memory leaks, easy on the eyes9
- Resilient to failure8
- OTP8
- GenServer takes the guesswork out of background work6
- Idempotence4
- Pattern matching4
- Not Swift4
- Fast, Concurrent with clean error messages4
- Easy to use3
- Error isolation2
- Dynamic Typing2
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Cons of Crystal
- Small community13
- No windows support3
- No Oracle lib1
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 understand2
- Not a lot of learning books available1