kevinjcliao

Do you know where I can download the raw data? I'd like to keep a copy of it.

Thanks for your reply! All points you make are incredibly valid, but I still have some pushback:

But where would you stop?

If Elixir makes it easier to write fast, concurrent for many people than Erlang, that totally can be discussed. The way you separate developer satisfaction/well-designed syntax from the VM it runs on top of is a separation I dispute.

Obviously these comparisons will never be 100% valid, but I think they make my point: Will you say that Scala is no different (or better) from Java? Will you say that Dart or Elm are no different (or better) from JavaScript? Simply because their underlying architecture is the same?

I think there is some hostility I am sensing from Erlang programmers where there is none given in return. I don't hate Erlang. I'm simply saying a language that can leverage the performance of the Erlang VM shouldn't be dismissed. Again, I never ever said I thought Elixir was better than Erlang. I was just responding to the parent commenter's assertion that all alchemists are pathetic.

Also, I think the implication that may have entered my writing was that because I personally found Elixir easier to learn (and it would be difficult to argue that I am alone in this), it is somehow a better language than Haskell, Erlang, and many other FP languages out there. If that was the implication you drew, I apologise for my a mistake in my writing. Since I learned Elixir, I'm now taking a course in Haskell at my college to better understand these programming languages. Just because I called Elixir incredible, doesn't mean I believe it's the end all be all language!

Again, thanks for your comment. I learned a lot from it.

Thanks for your clarification. I think 'just syntax' is a bit dismissive of the importance that well-designed syntax has on being able to reason clearly in a certain way. Elixir's "just syntax" has made it so easy for me to understand FP concepts like pattern matching and higher order functions. I've struggled with these concepts before while trying to learn Haskell, Erlang and many other FP languages. Does that make me a bad programmer? The parent commenter would certainly think so.

I totally take your point that everything written in Elixir could be written in Erlang. That much is a fact. However, my point in saying they serve different uses is saying that better syntax in itself isn't nothing. If a language enables many people to grasp actor-based concurrency in an easy to understand fashion, can we reduce that to "just syntax"? I guess my point is that introducing syntactic clarity is in itself a massive feature that shouldn't be dismissed.

I hope that further explains my intent!

Have you really saved time, though? I know next to nothing about elisp, yet I can be perfectly productive with Spacemacs. Being able to edit my .spacemacs file and add a functional layer for an entirely new programming language with sane defaults seriously beats fighting configuration files to do the same thing anyways.

This sort of 'configure your own' extremist software purity movement is great for some people, but if you want a setup that meets your needs 95% of the time, and works well, Spacemacs is great. I'm sure learning to configure your own vimrc has been a rewarding experience, but I don't think you can really argue it's a time saving measure.

Did you read the article? This is a pragmatic response to known flaws in the voting system. Yes, in an ideal world legislature will make policy changes to make voting easier, but until that happens making election day a holiday is a start.

Source? I'd really like to know more about this.

Hi! I'm wondering how Enchat is different from other open source projects that wrapped messenger.com into a Mac app with electron. What features does it have that these free and open source projects don't have?