As huge fan of the Elixir language I think this article missed the point.
Elixir is gaining popularity _because_ of the Erlang VM and libraries. Yes, macros, protocols, syntax, etc may attract a first glance at the language, but I believe people stay and evangelize Elixir because of the power of Erlang/OTP.
Likewise, I think Elixir popularity will only drive Erlang, Joxa, and LFE popularity forward as the initial roadblock of grokking the Erlang VM and how OTP works are overcome.
Exactly. Just Elixir build on say Ruby VM or Python VM would not be appealing. BEAM VM is really a marvel of engineering. Telling others that yes it provides lightweight processes which also have isolated heaps is often met with disbelief. It is almost magic.
I am a big fan of super simple provisioning for vagrant boxes. For development and trying new things a simple bash script has proven, in my experience, to be much less of a headache then chef etc.
Even coming in with a few years experience in Clojure and having spent time writing macros in Elixir I have found this to be a really worthwhile read (so far).
That said, this should not be your first Elixir book (as Chris points out in the book's introduction). It should be your second, especially if you are interested in writing libraries.
As a developer who has been using Linux as a desktop and enjoys tweaking every little thing: I think Arch is fantastic. It took my understanding of the OS and exactly what is going on to the next level.
However I work with developers who don't want to tweak every little thing they just want their OS to work and let them be passionate about development. They should stick to OSX, or if they are feeling adventurous try Ubuntu. I also would not suggest Arch if you have not used another more friendly Linux distro for a while and had the "opportunity" to troubleshoot some issues and enjoyed it.
To enjoy Arch you really have to be passionate about Linux and tweaking your machine, otherwise you will just be frustrated. For those that are I cannot recommend Arch enough.
* Web application developers (REMOTE okay for exceptional candidates)
* QA engineers
* DBA
* Dev Ops
What is Draker?
Our CEO says: “Draker provides data acquisition, monitoring and control of large scale solar plants. Draker has achieved 300+% growth in the North American commercial solar market over the past two years, and expects continued exponential growth from expansion into the utility scale market.”
Our company goal is to make solar a viable option in the US and world wide, and to make enough money to support ourselves doing it.
As a developer I consider us the NewRelic/GA of PV monitoring. We are facing challenges such as scaling, storing and processing an ever increasing quantity of data, creating a compelling and dynamic user experience for a complex problem, and working with real time data.
This job means something and most people are here to help make that difference. This is an industry that matters and a unique opportunity.
Some of the technologies we are using:
Ruby, Rails 3, SASS, Resque, Backbone, jQuery
Elixir is gaining popularity _because_ of the Erlang VM and libraries. Yes, macros, protocols, syntax, etc may attract a first glance at the language, but I believe people stay and evangelize Elixir because of the power of Erlang/OTP.
Likewise, I think Elixir popularity will only drive Erlang, Joxa, and LFE popularity forward as the initial roadblock of grokking the Erlang VM and how OTP works are overcome.