Learning Elixir Series #1

What Will I Learn?

In this article, you'll understand what Elixir programming language is, reasons why you should use it for your next project, how to setup the elixir language on a Linux system.

Requirements

• Know how to use NodeJS.

Difficulty

• Basic

What is Elixir???

Elixir is a functional programming language created in 2012 and designed for building scalable and maintainable applications. Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, which is known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Why should I try Elixir?

Programs in Elixir are written in functions and modules, not objects and classes. We don't need to declare data types for values and operations. These are checked at runtime. Elixir source codes are interpreted into bytecode to reduce runtime overhead and allow for nifty optimization by the elixir compiler which runs on top of the Erlang Virtual Machine. Elixir programs can run multiple tasks quickly and independently.

Setup

Before we proceed irrespective of the Operating System you are using, you’ll need to have node.js installed.

For windows users simply head over here to grab the elixir software and install.

For this tutorial series, I will be walking you through using a Linux machine.

To set up on Linux, this commands will do the magic for you

Add Erlang Solutions repo:

wget https://packages.erlang-solutions.com/erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb && sudo dpkg -i erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb

Update your machine dependencies and repo

sudo apt-get update

Install the Erlang/OTP platform and all of its applications:

sudo apt-get install esl-erlang

Now install Elixir:

sudo apt-get install elixir

Set Environment Path

On Unix systems

$ export PATH="$PATH:/path/to/elixir/bin"

Once you have Elixir installed, you can check its version by running

elixir --version.

What next?

If you completed this guide with no error(s), Congratulations to you!

Up next on this tutorial series, we'll take a deep dive into Elixir. We'll learn about its basic types, syntax and the Elixir ecosystem.

Thank you for your time!