Brian Cardarella on Adopting Elixir

Elixir is a dynamic, functional language that packs a punch. Built on the strengths of its predecessors like Ruby and Erlang, it sits comfortably in a space where performance and scalability are at a premium. Today we speak with Brian Cardarella, owner and former member of DockYard, to find out more about Elixir and why he feels it serves companies and employees so well. We open the show by studying Elixir’s DNA, learning more about Ruby on Rails and what made it so attractive as an offering during its heyday. Brian then shifts scope and talks about why Ember has steadily failed, and touches on a lack of efficiency and poor marketing strategies as the obvious catalysts for its demise. As our conversation develops, Brian dives deeper into Elixir, sharing nuggets of wisdom and entertaining anecdotes along the way. Listeners will hear why Elixir performs so strongly and how he believes companies should go about adopting the language. Brian expands on the topic and shares which types of clients should be open to Elixir and the methods you can use to convert them. As we near the end of the episode, we hear from Brian about Lumen’s characteristics and at what point developers will be able to write an app without JavaScript in Elixir. To find out more, be sure to join us today! Key Points From This Episode: Introducing today’s guest, DockYard’s Brian Cardarella. Why Brian doesn’t think Ember is relevant as a topic of conversation. What made Ruby on Rails the go-to language for a new generation of developers. The reasons for Ember’s failing, according to Brian. Brian’s transition from Ruby on Rails to Elixir. The challenges that come with organizing software conferences. Areas where Elixir is performing and lagging. Why Brian prefers supporting companies that do not have huge corporate backing. Hear why Brian wanted to introduce Elixir at DockYard. How Brian believes companies should go about adopting Elixir. The challenges that come with junior and senior developers. Brain talks about the intricacies of optional type systems and real type systems. How Elixir adoption should be performed. Brian describes Lumen’s characteristics. Find out at what point you will be able to code without JavaScript in Elixir. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: BCardarella on Twitter - https://twitter.com/bcardarella Brian Cardarella on Slack - BCardarella Ember - https://emberjs.com/ Ruby on Rails - https://rubyonrails.org/ Elixir Ecosystem Survey 2020 results - https://elixirforum.com/t/2020-elixir-community-survey-results/34189/7 DHH - https://dhh.dk/ José Valim - https://github.com/josevalim Johnny Boursquiat - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jboursiquot/ Dave Thomas - https://pragdave.me/ The Pragmatic Programmer Book https://pragprog.com/titles/elixir16/programming-elixir-1-6/ Bruce Tate - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-tate-a836b/ Grox.io - https://grox.io/ Type Systems - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system TypeScript - https://www.typescriptlang.org/ Gleam - https://gleam.run/ Elm - https://elm-lang.org/ Python - https://www.python.org/ Elixir Case Studies - https://elixir-lang.org/blog/ Elixir Bridge - http://elixirbridge.org/ Lumen - https://github.com/lumen/lumen Web Assembly Spec - https://github.com/WebAssembly/spec Lumen Twitter - https://twitter.com/getlumen DockYard - https://dockyard.com/ Netflix - https://about.netflix.com/en LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/ The Standells - https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-standells-mn0000923618/biography The Red Sox - https://www.mlb.com/redsox Shipyard Beer - https://shipyard.com/ GoDaddy - https://za.godaddy.com/ ElixirConf - https://www.elixirconf.eu/ thoughtbot - https://thoughtbot.com/ Apple - https://www.apple.com/ Disqus - https://disqus.com/profile/login/ Special Guests: Brian Cardarella and Sundi Myint.