Elixir for targeting code generation?

[easco]

@patefacio

• Fast turnaround since language was in scripting space - make change, save and less than two seconds all files updated

Elixir is a compiled language. Once you have downloaded dependencies it can take a while to compile everything the first time. Once you’ve got the thing built, however, updates happen fairly quickly.

I spend a lot of time with applications in the Elixir REPL, iex where I will make a small change to a file, reload the module in the REPL and try the change out there.

@patefacio

• Great support for string interpolation “class ${className} …”. I’ve used template libraries in other languages and I’m ok with them but have no strong attraction to them and don’t mind piecing together all text in code. String interpolation makes it easy.

In Elixir, your string interpolation would probably look like like “class #{class_name}”

The built in templating in Elixir comes from the EEx module. The nice thing about EEx is that it takes the template and compiles it into a function (into executable code) so running the template is fast.

@patefacio

• They have this nice syntax called cascades that turns any set of chained method calls into a kind of fluid API automatically. So - a small sample:

        class_('change_tracker')
        ..descr = '''
  Tracks current/previous values of the given type of data. For some
  algorithms it is useful to be able to examine/perform logic on
  current value and compare or evalutate how it has changed since
  previous value.'''
        ..template = [ 'typename T' ]
        ..customBlocks = [clsPublic]
        ..members = [
          member('current')..type = 'T'..access = ro,
          member('previous')..type = 'T'..access = ro,
        ],

Never having seen Dart before I’m not sure what this code snippet means – what you are trying to demonstrate with it.

@patefacio

• Excellent libraries for xml, json, yaml etc. One use case is to read xml from protocol schema definitions and generate library support.

I know from first hand experience that Elixir parses JSON well. I’ve not used XML or Yaml from Elixir. You might look here: GitHub - h4cc/awesome-elixir: A curated list of amazingly awesome Elixir and Erlang libraries, resources and shiny things. Updates: · GitHub and GitHub - h4cc/awesome-elixir: A curated list of amazingly awesome Elixir and Erlang libraries, resources and shiny things. Updates: · GitHub

@patefacio

• Excellent error identification (type related) from the IDE before even running the code.

Elixir is a dynamically typed language. There is support from a tool called Dialyzer to help type-check your code, but you have to run that tool as a separate step. Given your remarks about your desired turnaround time on code changes, I suspect you would find those unsatisfactory.