Elixir Outlaws

Chris recently replaced some Ruby with some Elixir. The guys discuss what it takes to rewrite a service, why Elixir is a good choice when you need to do more than one thing at a time, and the benefit of choosing tools that your team understands.

This week, Chris is eating while recording. Luckily, the bar for this podcast has been set so low that no one will be surprised. Amos wants to know when you should use telemetry instead of sending metrics directly from your app code. This leads to a discussion on how Bleacher Report uses telemetry, some established telemetry conventions, and how those conventions may be changing. There’s a quick detour into DDD or whoever it was that said, “the database doesn’t matter”. Chris isn’t sure who made that claim, but he is sure that they’re wrong. On the way out the door, the guys talk about Dune, Baby Yoda, and what makes for a good Dungeon Master.

This week Amos is joined by friend of the show Martin Gausby for a discussion on types, open source projects, and emacs. Transcript is avaiable in rich text format on this website, and as a blog on Binary Noggin's website: https://binarynoggin.com/blog/episode-72-now-you-know-what-a-monad-is/ Special Guests: Connor Rigby and Martin Gausby.

The Elixir Outlaws now have a Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5332239). If you’re enjoying the show then please consider throwing a few bucks our way to help us pay for the costs for the show.

This week the hosts talk about quarantine. Because, what else would they be talking about. Amos and Chris somehow get on the subject of gardening. They both agree that fresh broccoli is amazing, but the cost is just too great. Everyone talk's about their anxieties and how the pandemic is affecting their lives. They share a few ways to escape from the stress of isolation. Also slack’s new UI is hella weird.

Chris and Amos kick this week off with a discussion on the challenges of working from home. Chris thinks you loose a lot of fidelity when you move to remote work. Way more than anyone wants you to believe. Plus you need to get used kids yelling all the time. After a brief detour to discuss Ben Franklin's lesser known contributions to science, Amos explains his strategy for deploying elixir apps. The guys discuss the various platforms and techniques one can use to put elixir into production. Both agree that Terraform is basically the worst, but that its also, probably, the best.

Chris is doing a lot of blocking and tackling, which, it turns out, isn’t about pulleys. For the purposes of this discussion, blocking and tackling means adding telemetry events to elixir projects. Neither Amos or Chris want to be the ones who have to work out these details and would rather play with chatbots. The main topic this week is abstractions. Chris thinks that the same people who misuse phrases like “Impedance mismatch” also misuse terms like “abstraction,” but he also admits that he’s wrong about everything he says. The guys talk about the differences between abstraction and encapsulation. In the end, Chris only wants to write SQL queries and run them. Somehow the conversation devolves into comparisons between type systems. Chris has a moment of self-awareness, then regresses to standing on soapboxes and shaking his fist at the clouds.

Live from Lonestar Elixir (https://lonestarelixir.com) with Elixir Wizards (https://podcast.smartlogic.io). Congratulations to Eric on the birth of his first child. The Elixir Outlaws now have a Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5332239). If you’re enjoying the show then please consider throwing a few bucks our way to help us pay for the costs for the show. Special Guests: Bruce Tate, Justus Eapen, Susumu Yamazaki, and  Melvin Cedeno.

Chris and Anna discuss strategies for dealing with long running projects. Chris asks Anna for advice on being a better mentor.

This week kicks off with a discussion on productivity and habits. Amos is trying to learn how to focus and Chris decides that the best way to be productive is to be productive. The main topic this week is about refactoring and TDD. Chris believes refactoring isn’t a real word and goes to great lengths to explain why.

This week the hosts discuss weekly reviews, telemetry, recent shakeups in the community, and how to make service communication more efficient.

This week Chris and Amos are joined by friend of the show and author of Real-Time Phoenix, Steve Bussey. They discuss Steve's book release, Phoenix Channels, creative ways to use GenStage, and the best (worst) practices to use when building a library. Special Guest: Steve Bussey.

This week kicks off with Chris explaining why Ultimate Frisbee is a dumb game. The hosts talk about Norm updates and why we should re-write everything in rust. Chris explains the thesis of So Good They Can’t Ignore you. This leads to a discussion about how to find challenging problems. Finally Amos brings up the southern tradition of Hoppin’ John. Which is boring and you can easily skip it. The host want to get questions from you! So send those to us via the feedback form on our website or message us on twitter: @ElixirOutlaws (https://twitter.com/elixiroutlaws)

This week Chris and Amos discuss the benefits of vectors and the life changing magic of using a runtime with a good concurrency model.

Chris is back on coffee and is coming in hot. Amos attempts to talk through the new features in Elixir 1.10 while Chris constantly interjects, makes jokes and generally tries everyone’s patience. Eventually Chris settles down long enough to have a real conversation. The hosts describe the benefits of Elixir becoming a stable and boring choice. They also make fun of Go.

Amos is driving this week. Chris and Amos discuss SICP and how amazing it is. Amos is preparing to winterize and Chris is working on a prolog interpreter. Chris talks about the journey of using emacs and the journey’s inside of those journeys. Amos has been working with GenStage and Broadway. Chris knows nothing about Broadway and hasn’t ever found a problem that needed GenStage. Chris theorizes that the reason people use processes for their business entities is because they don’t have other chances to use processes.

This week kicks off with a recap of GigCity Elixir. Chris and Amos encourage people to attend smaller conferences because, seriously, they're way more fun. Chris is building RPC to see if it helps solve some of the coordination issues that he's experiencing at work. The conversation moves to the concept of autonomy and leverage in software systems and how to help teams align on larger goals. Dave's latest talk from GigCity is referenced and Chris expounds on his love for Datalog. Finally the hosts indulge in multiple divergences in which they divulge information about their personal lives.

A live recording right before the final keynote at GigCity Elixir (https://www.gigcityelixir.com). The Elixir Outlaws now have a Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5332239). If you’re enjoying the show then please consider throwing a few bucks our way to help us pay for the costs for the show.

This week Anna and Amos discuss preparation for GigCity Elixir, modes of thinking, and concurrency models.

This week the hosts discuss Strangeloop, Unison, handling breaking changes, refactoring and how to build open systems.