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  5. Elixir vs JavaScript

Elixir vs JavaScript

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

JavaScript
JavaScript
Stacks392.2K
Followers284.0K
Votes8.1K
Elixir
Elixir
Stacks3.5K
Followers3.3K
Votes1.3K
GitHub Stars26.0K
Forks3.5K

Elixir vs JavaScript: What are the differences?

Introduction

Elixir and JavaScript are both programming languages commonly used in web development. While they share some similarities, there are also several key differences between the two.

  1. Syntax: Elixir and JavaScript have distinct syntaxes. Elixir is a functional programming language that uses a syntax similar to Ruby. It emphasizes immutability and pattern matching. On the other hand, JavaScript is an object-oriented language with a C-style syntax. It supports both functional and imperative programming styles.

  2. Concurrency Model: Elixir and JavaScript have different approaches to handling concurrency. Elixir is built on the Erlang virtual machine (BEAM), which has built-in support for lightweight processes and message passing. This makes it easy to write scalable and fault-tolerant applications. In contrast, JavaScript has a single-threaded event loop model that relies heavily on asynchronous operations and callbacks to handle concurrent tasks.

  3. Typing System: Elixir and JavaScript have different type systems. Elixir is a dynamically typed language with a strong emphasis on static typing through the use of type specifications. This allows for better tooling and error detection at compile time. JavaScript, on the other hand, is dynamically typed with a weak typing system, which gives more flexibility but can also lead to harder-to-detect runtime errors.

  4. Package Management: Elixir and JavaScript have different package managers. Elixir uses Hex to manage its packages, with a centralized repository and easy version management. JavaScript, on the other hand, has several package managers, with NPM being the most commonly used. NPM has a large ecosystem of packages but can be more complex to manage.

  5. Concurrency and Parallelism: Elixir and JavaScript handle concurrency and parallelism differently. Elixir's lightweight processes allow for true parallel execution and can scale across multiple cores. JavaScript, on the other hand, relies on its event loop model and asynchronous operations to handle concurrent tasks, but it does not have native support for true parallel execution.

  6. Error Handling: Elixir and JavaScript have different approaches to error handling. Elixir follows a "let it crash" philosophy, where errors are caught and handled at a higher level in the application. This leads to more fault-tolerant systems. JavaScript, on the other hand, relies on error handling through try-catch blocks, which can make it harder to handle errors in a distributed system.

In summary, Elixir and JavaScript differ in their syntax, concurrency models, typing systems, package management, concurrency and parallelism handling, and error handling approaches.

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Advice on JavaScript, 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
Alicia
Alicia

Nov 13, 2020

Needs adviceonJavaJavaPythonPythonJavaScriptJavaScript

I am new to programming and am a university student. While Computer Science is not my area of study, I am majoring in a subject that branches off computer science and health informatics, which deals with databases. I am currently in a programming fundamentals course at my university. My instructor mentioned that he develops in Java, but I have heard many good things about Python and JavaScript before taking his course; while we are only doing the fundamentals, I believe he is teaching us some in Java.

Since I am new to this, I'm not sure what I like more. I have also been self-teaching before this course but have not gotten deep into a particular language's fundamentals. I want to decide on a language and stick to it before I move to a new one after the first language is learned, but it is difficult deciding which language to start with. I want to develop medical software and medical mobile apps.

241k views241k
Comments
Rachel
Rachel

Nov 24, 2020

Needs adviceonJavaScriptJavaScriptPythonPythonC++C++

Hi, I'm just starting to learn code, and I stumbled upon this website. I think I should learn JavaScript, Python, and C++ to begin with. I'm a quick learner so I am only worried about what would be more useful. Suppose my goal is to build an online clothing store or something. Then what languages would be best? I need advice. Please help me out. I'm 13 and just beginning and it's hard to understand when people use technical terms so please keep it simple. Thanks a lot.

292k views292k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

JavaScript
JavaScript
Elixir
Elixir

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.

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
-
GitHub Stars
26.0K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
3.5K
Stacks
392.2K
Stacks
3.5K
Followers
284.0K
Followers
3.3K
Votes
8.1K
Votes
1.3K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1670
    Can be used on frontend/backend
  • 1497
    It's everywhere
  • 1163
    Lots of great frameworks
  • 899
    Fast
  • 746
    Light weight
Cons
  • 24
    A constant moving target, too much churn
  • 20
    Horribly inconsistent
  • 16
    Javascript is the New PHP
  • 9
    No ability to monitor memory utilitization
  • 8
    Shows Zero output in case of ANY error
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 JavaScript, Elixir?

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.

Rust

Rust

Rust is a systems programming language that combines strong compile-time correctness guarantees with fast performance. It improves upon the ideas of other systems languages like C++ by providing guaranteed memory safety (no crashes, no data races) and complete control over the lifecycle of memory.

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