Elixir 1.2.0 Released
How ironic, I was wondering just last night when 1.2 would be released.I'm a newcomer to Elixir, and have really been enjoying it. As a Python->Rubyist, it's been really interesting to finally hit a functional language, and some of Elixir's most basic features just seem crazy in comparison to what I've come from. Some neat examples:* Pattern Matching. In other words- you don't assign things to variables, you match things. Elixir/Erlang is just doing algebra behind the scenes. I'm sure this is a gross simplification, but it's enabled me to write some really condensed code that still makes a bunch of sense.* Streams. I know Node developers would laugh at this being a new concept, but I hit Streams when I was doing Node, and I didn't get it. Streams in Elixir feel much more self-evident, and feel much easier to read.* The Pipe Operator( |> ). This effectively lets you simplify code by just passing results from one thing to the next. For example(taken from the excellent "Programming Elixir" by Dave Thomas):$ (1..10) |> Enum.map(&(&1*&1)) |> Enum.filter(&(&1 => [1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36]So there, it takes the 1..10 range, maps the squares of each element to an array, then filters the array to just the elements that are less than 40.It's a surprisingly enjoyable language to program in, and best of all coming from a Rubyist- the performance gains are automatic, especially once you grok some of Elixir's crazier(but easy to understand) powers.-----The other thing I really like about it, is how friendly the community seems. I feel personally predisposed toward extremely friendly communities- Ember.js was the first community that made me feel like I had a home- and the care with which Jose Valim and the core team treat people, and the general "Give back everything you can" attitude of the community is really just inspiring.My newest side project was something I dropped because I thought that the hardware necessary would make it not worth the effort of building it, but now I have complete confidence in it.I encourage you to take a shot at it if you're looking for a fast, functional language with a clear syntax and easymode concurrency.