Why Elixir? &
Getting Started

for Boston's Elixir Women

Elixir (and Functional JS) is Gaining Traction

Elixir - April 2016: Assess → November 2016: Trial

Phoenix - First Appearance → November 2016: Trial

https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/languages-and-frameworks/phoenix

It's Fast

https://hashrocket.com/blog/posts/websocket-shootout

Websocket Client Concurrency Performance

Web Framework Performance

https://github.com/mroth/phoenix-showdown

It's a Readable Functional Language

 object HelloWorld {
    def main(args: Array[String]) {
      println("Hello, world!")
    }
  }

Scala

module Main where

main = putStrLn "Hello, World!"

Haskell

fn main() {
    println!("Hello World!");
}

Rust

(ns helloworld.core)

(defn -main []
  "I can say 'Hello World'."
  (println "Hello, World!"))

Clojure

defmodule HelloWorld do
  def hello do
    IO.puts "Hello World"
  end
end

Elixir

The Ruby → Elixir Migration?

It's heavily inspired by Ruby.

https://robots.thoughtbot.com/elixir-for-rubyists

The Ruby → Elixir Migration?

• Plaformatec, creators of the indispensable Ruby gems, Devise and Simple Form, back/created Elixir.
   
• Jose Valim, creator of Elixir, is a former core team member of Ruby on Rails.
   
• Chris McCord, creator of the Phoenix framework, was hired by Dockyard in Oct. 2015, when they dropped RoR to go full-on Elixir, Phoenix, and Ember.
   
• Thoughtbot, creators of Ruby gems Paperclip and Factory Girl, are also adopting it and heading up new open-source efforts (Hex Packages Bamboo and ExMachina).

It's Great For Artificial Neural Networks and Deep Learning

http://www.automatingthefuture.com/blog/2016/9/7/artificial-neural-networks-elixir-and-you

# Create nodes
neuron = Neuron.start_node(bias: 10, activation_function: function(identity/1))
sensor = Sensor.start_node(sync_function: fake_sensor_data([[1, 1, 1, 1, 1]]))
actuator = Actuator.start_node([])

# Wire up network
connect(from: sensor, to: neuron, weights: [20, 20, 20, 20, 20])
connect(from: neuron, to: actuator)

# tap into actuator for testing purposes
NodeProcess.add_outbound_connection(actuator, self())

# feed input into sensor
NodeProcess.sync(sensor)

# verify actuator output
assert actuator_next_output() == 110

https://github.com/tleyden/neurlang

Paradigms

• Functional
• Concurrent
• Dynamic
• Fast, Elegant, and Fun
• 6 years young
• Built on Erlang (31 years young)

Familiar Concepts

Exciting Concepts

• Pattern Matching
• First-Class Functions
• Closures
• Pipelines
• First-Class Documentation
• First-Class Testing*
• Erlang*
• Phoenix Framework*

Pattern Matching

# The equal sign is a Match Operator
# It binds when empty
iex> x = 1 
1

# It fails on mismatches
iex> 2 = x
** (MatchError) no match of right hand side value: 1

# It can match simple values, data structures, and functions
iex> {:ok, result} = {:ok, 13}
{:ok, 13}
iex> result
13

First-Class Functions

iex> greeter = fn -> "Hey Buddy" end
#Function<20.52032458/0 in :erl_eval.expr/5>
iex> greeter.()
"Hey Buddy"

Functions can be assigned to variables

iex> apply.(minus_2,6)
4

Functions can be passed to other functions

First-Class Functions

Functions can return functions

inception_greeter = fn ->
                      fn ->
                        "Hiya"
                      end
                    end
#Function<20.52032458/0 in :erl_eval.expr/5>
iex> inception_greeter.()
#Function<20.52032458/0 in :erl_eval.expr/5>
iex> greeter = inception.()
#Function<20.52032458/0 in :erl_eval.expr/5>
iex> greeter.()
"Hiya"

First-Class Functions

name_greeter = fn name ->
                 fn ->
                   "Hiya #{name}!"
                 end
               end
#Function<20.52032458/0 in :erl_eval.expr/5>
iex> tiff_greeter = name_greeter.("Tiff")
#Function<20.52032458/0 in :erl_eval.expr/5>
iex> tiff_greeter.()
"Hiya Tiff!"

Functions carry with them the bindings of variables in the scope they're defined (closures).

First-Class Functions

It's a modern, functional language! Huge libraries of functions are built-in and the convention is to use them.

https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/Enum.html

First-Class Functions

Pipelines!

people = DB.find_customers
orders = Order.for_customers(people)
tax = sales_tax(orders, 2016)
filing = prepare_filing(tax)

filing = DB.find_customers
         |> Orders.for_customers
         |> sales_tax(2016)
         |> prepare_filing

→

First-Class Documentation

defmodule Butler.Tableflip do
  @moduledoc """
  Flip some tables
  """

  use Butler.Plugin

  @usage """
  tableflip - replies with a flipped table
  """

  def flip_table do
    :random.seed(:os.timestamp)
    table_list = [
      "(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻",
      "(╯°□°）╯︵ <ǝlqɐʇ>",
      "the table flipped you! ノ┬─┬ノ ︵ ( \o°o)\ ",
      "┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻"
    ]

    Enum.random(table_list)
  end

  hear ~r/tableflip/, conn do
    reply conn, flip_table
  end
end

https://github.com/keathley/butler_tableflip

First-Class Documentation

Card Example

Elixir Language Docs

Learning Resources

Books

Screencasts

Exercises

Newsletters

More...

Why a Women's Group

http://fusion.net/story/115998/survey-says-92-percent-of-software-developers-are-men/

https://www.cnet.com/news/women-in-tech-the-numbers-dont-add-up/

http://githut.info/

• Reports range: Female software developers make up 10%-30% of the industry (downward trend since 1980s)
• Boston Elixir Meetup: 7% (27/373)
• Boston's Elixir Women: 100% (36, less than 1/3 overlap)
• Active Elixir GitHub Repos: 1,210
• Active Ruby GitHub Repos: 132,848
• Bigger Impact + New Language + Boston

Meetup Structure Ideas

Talk / Lightning Talk Ideas

• Phoenix
• Erlang
• Tutorial Walkthroughs
• Open Source Repo Walkthoughs