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Elixir vs Flask: What are the differences?
Introduction
In this Markdown, we will compare Elixir and Flask, highlighting their key differences.
Language Type and Purpose: Elixir is a functional programming language that runs on the Erlang virtual machine (BEAM). It is designed for building scalable and fault-tolerant applications that can handle massive concurrency. On the other hand, Flask is a micro web framework written in Python. It is used for developing small to medium-sized web applications quickly and easily.
Concurrency Model: Elixir leverages the Actor model of concurrency, where lightweight processes (actors) communicate with each other using message passing. This approach allows for highly concurrent and distributed systems. In contrast, Flask follows a single-threaded synchronous model where it processes one request at a time. It relies on Python's Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) for concurrency.
Scalability and Performance: Due to its concurrency model, Elixir excels in scaling horizontally across multiple machines and handling massive amounts of concurrent requests. It is particularly well-suited for building real-time systems or handling high-traffic applications. Flask, although scalable, may face limitations in handling high concurrency or heavy load situations.
Syntax and Paradigm: Elixir uses an expressive and dynamically-typed language syntax heavily influenced by Ruby and functional programming concepts. It promotes immutability, pattern matching, and a functional coding style. Flask, being written in Python, follows a more traditional object-oriented programming (OOP) approach with a syntax that emphasizes readability and simplicity.
Framework Complexity: Elixir, being a full-fledged programming language, brings with it a steeper learning curve than Flask. It requires a strong understanding of functional programming principles and the actor model. On the other hand, Flask is relatively easy to learn and use, making it an excellent choice for beginners or developers who want to quickly prototype web applications.
Ecosystem and Community: Elixir, although gaining popularity rapidly, has a smaller community compared to Flask. Flask benefits from being built with Python, which is one of the most widely-used programming languages globally. Python has a massive ecosystem with abundant libraries, frameworks, and resources available. Elixir, while still growing, has a more limited ecosystem in terms of libraries and mature frameworks.
In summary, Elixir differs from Flask in terms of language type and purpose, concurrency model, scalability and performance, syntax and paradigm, framework complexity, and ecosystem and community.
Overall, Elixir is ideal for building highly concurrent and scalable applications, while Flask is suited for rapid development of small to medium-sized web applications.
My journey to developing REST APIs started with Flask Restful, and I've found it to be enough for the needs of my project back then. Now that I've started investing more time on personal projects, I've yet to decide if I should move to use Django for writing REST APIs. I often see job posts looking for Python+Django developers, but it's usually for full-stack developers. I'm primarily interested in Data Engineering, so most of my web projects are back end.
Should I continue with what I know (Flask) or move on to Django?
If you want to be a Web developer with knowledge in another frontend and NoSql technology, maybe continue with Flask. However, if you want to create very fast solutions to grow up with a new business and merge these with data analysis and other tools, Django is the answer. Basically read more about the service architecture where you feel more comfortable, Microservice or Monolithic, but please will not married with any because they solve issues to different contexts.
Which is the best Python framework for microservices?
We are using Nameko for building microservices in Python. The things we really like are dependency injection and the ease with which one can expose endpoints via RPC over RabbitMQ. We are planning to try a tool that helps us write polyglot microservices and nameko is not super compatible with it. Also, we are a bit worried about the not so good community support from nameko and looking for a python alternate to write microservices.
Bottle is much less bloated and fast. Its built-in templating system is one of the fastest as it compiles the templates in bytecode. Also Bottle has no depenencies, preventing dependency bloat.
I have just started learning Python 3 weeks ago. I want to create a REST API using python. The API will be used to save form data in an Oracle database. The front end is using AngularJS 8 with Angular Material. In python, there are so many frameworks to develop REST APIs.
I am looking for some suggestions which REST framework to choose?
Here are some features I am looking for:
Easy integration and unit testing, like in Angular. We just want to run a command.
Code packaging, like in java maven project we can build and package. I am looking for something which I can push in as an artifact and deploy whole code as a package.
Support for swagger/ OpenAPI
Support for JSON Web Token
Support for test case coverage report
Framework can have features included or can be available by extension. Also, you can suggest a framework other than the ones I have mentioned.
For starters flask provides a beautiful and easy way to create REST APIs. Also its supported by excellent beginner docs as well as a very active community. Another good thing with Flask is its widely available list of plugins which allow you to build as you go. Its also good in performance and can scale to a quite decent level. However, if you are sure your project is going to be fairly big, it would be better to start with Django as it provides a lot of features out of the box and is extremely stable in performance. Both these frameworks have support for Swagger, JWT, Coverage Report although you have to install plugins for them. Deploying both of these are fairly simple and there is huge documentation available. Django has one of the best documentations I have come across. I hope I was able to answer your queries.
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 Elixir
- Concurrency174
- Functional162
- Erlang vm133
- Great documentation113
- Great tooling105
- Immutable data structures87
- 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
- Doc as first class citizen11
- Good lang11
- Pipe Operator11
- Stinkin' fast, no memory leaks, easy on the eyes9
- Fun to write9
- OTP8
- Resilient to failure8
- GenServer takes the guesswork out of background work6
- Pattern matching4
- Not Swift4
- Idempotence4
- Fast, Concurrent with clean error messages4
- Easy to use3
- Dynamic Typing2
- Error isolation2
Pros of Flask
- For it flexibility10
- Flexibilty and easy to use9
- User friendly7
- Secured6
- Unopinionated5
- Secure2
- Customizable2
- Simple to use1
- Powerful1
- Rapid development1
- Flask1
- Easy to get started1
- Easy to develop and maintain applications1
- Easy to setup and get it going1
- Easy to use1
- Documentation1
- Beautiful code1
- Orm1
- Not JS1
- Perfect for small to large projects with superb docs.1
- Easy to integrate1
- Speed1
- Get started quickly1
- Python1
- Minimal1
- Lightweight1
- Flexibilty0
- Well designed0
- Productive0
- Awesome0
- Open source0
- Expressive0
- Love it0
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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
Cons of Flask
- Not JS10
- Context7
- Not fast5
- Don't has many module as in spring1
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