193 episodes

The Thinking Elixir podcast is a weekly show where we talk about the Elixir programming language and the community around it. We cover news and interview guests to learn more about projects and developments in the community.
Whether you are already experienced with Elixir or just exploring the language, this show is created with you in mind. We discuss community news, Functional Programming, transitioning from OOP, coding conventions, and more.
Guests visit the show to help challenge our assumptions, learn about new developments and grow in the process.
Subscribe to join us on this journey!

Thinking Elixir Podcast ThinkingElixir.com

    • Education
    • 5.0 • 29 Ratings

The Thinking Elixir podcast is a weekly show where we talk about the Elixir programming language and the community around it. We cover news and interview guests to learn more about projects and developments in the community.
Whether you are already experienced with Elixir or just exploring the language, this show is created with you in mind. We discuss community news, Functional Programming, transitioning from OOP, coding conventions, and more.
Guests visit the show to help challenge our assumptions, learn about new developments and grow in the process.
Subscribe to join us on this journey!

    193: Operational Elixir: Observing the Midsize Madness

    193: Operational Elixir: Observing the Midsize Madness

    In this engaging third episode of our series, Dave Lucia returns to delve into the various systems that support small and medium-sized teams and companies for their Elixir systems. Dave shares insights gained from a range of situations including working at startups on up to Series C and D sized companies, with a particular focus on the critical role of observability tools. Drawing on his extensive experience, Dave discusses how these tools can greatly enhance a team's ability to monitor and troubleshoot applications, ensuring high performance and reliability. Tune in for a comprehensive look at the essential systems and tools that can make a tangible difference in the day-to-day operations of Elixir-powered organizations, and more!


    Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/193


    Elixir Community News



    https://twitter.com/josevalim/status/1762921819776934146 – José Valim has teased a new feature for Elixir 1.17 which may include a mix test flag --breakpoints for debugging failed tests.
    https://gleam.run/news/gleam-version-1/ – Gleam v1.0 has been released, marking the language's stability and readiness for production with a commitment to maintain backwards compatibility.
    https://github.com/underjord/entrace – Lars Wikman shared his work on the Entrace tracing project, offering easier tracing support to applications.
    https://github.com/underjord/entrace_live_dashboard – Entrac LiveDashboard was announced by Lars Wikman to add a tracing page to the LiveDashboard plugin.
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGxJUadP1CaaU6EnTwe7Hv76RnBLIiqT6SJLIBvncHcEzGRg/viewform – The Call for Proposals for talks at ElixirConfUS is open, including information to book hotel rooms for the event taking place from August 28-30, 2024.


    Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at @ThinkingElixir or email at show@thinkingelixir.com


    Discussion Resources



    https://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/75 – Previous interview with Dave Lucia talking about RabbitMQ and Commanded
    https://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/97 – Previous interview with Dave Lucia talking about Avro and Elixir
    https://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/129 – Previous interview with Dave Lucia talking about Time series data with Timescale DB
    https://Sentry.io
    https://www.servicenow.com/products/observability.html – Observability tool formerly knowns as LightStep
    https://www.honeycomb.io/
    https://opentelemetry.io/docs/collector/
    https://github.com/open-telemetry
    https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/traces/
    https://hex.pm/packages/opentelemetry
    https://hex.pm/packages/opentelemetry_exporter
    https://davelucia.com/ – Dave's personal blog
    https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus
    https://grafana.com/
    https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/send-data/promtail/
    https://fly.io/docs/reference/metrics/
    https://isburmistrov.substack.com/p/all-you-need-is-wide-events-not-metrics
    https://amplitude.com/
    Custom LiveView admin pages for dashboards
    https://postmarkapp.com/
    https://sendgrid.com/en-us
    https://milkroad.com/ – A newsletter company that Dave Lucia worked at.
    https://www.beehiiv.com/ – Newsletters as a service company
    https://ahrefs.com/ – Tracking the back links from other sites to yours for SEO
    https://search.google.com/search-console/about
    https://github.com/dbernheisel/phoenix_seo
    https://tvlabs.ai/ – Where Dave Lucia is working now.


    Guest Information



    https://twitter.com/davydog187 – on Twitter
    https://github.com/davydog187/ – on Github
    https://davelucia.com – Blog
    https://tvlabs.ai – TVLabs company where he works now.


    Find us online



    Message the show - @ThinkingElixir
    Message the show on Fediverse - @ThinkingElixir@genserver.social
    Email the show - show@thinkingelixir.com
    Mark Ericksen - @brainlid
    Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - @brainlid@genserver.social
    David Bernheisel - @bernheisel
    David Bernheisel on Fediverse - @dbern@genserver.social
    Cade Ward - @cadebward
    Cade Ward on Fediverse - @cadebward@genserver.social
    Sponsore

    • 55 min
    192: Operational Elixir: Scrappy Startups Edition

    192: Operational Elixir: Scrappy Startups Edition

    In this second installment of our series, we're joined by Philip Brown, who returns to share his insights on running lean startups in the Elixir ecosystem. We dive into the art of supporting Elixir systems on a shoestring budget. Philip will walk us through his must-haves for MVPs, offering practical advice on how to leverage cost-effective solutions without sacrificing functionality. We'll discuss the balancing act between delivering a product and managing expenses, and highlight the essential tools that keep a scrappy startup's Elixir system robust yet affordable. Tune in for a candid look at making the most of limited resources, insights into Prise.com, ElixirMerge.com strategies, and more for the aspiring bootstrapper!


    Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/192


    Elixir Community News



    https://github.com/erlang/eep/pull/59 – Erlang EEP 68, a new JSON module, has been accepted and merged into OTP's standard library.
    https://www.erlang.org/eeps/eep-0068 – Details on Erlang EEP 68, which claims to significantly outperform other JSON libraries like Jason and jiffy.
    Speculation on whether EEP 68 will be included in OTP 27 and its performance compared to existing JSON libraries.
    https://github.com/electric-sql/pglite – PostgreSQL has been redeveloped as a WASM library called PGlite, allowing it to run in browsers and other environments without additional dependencies.
    https://twitter.com/sasajuric/status/1762394843341353390 – Announcement of the printing of 'Elixir in Action 3rd Edition' and its rank on Manning's bestseller list.
    Remember to use the "devtalk.com" or "mljuric3" coupon codes until March 9th for 45% off the ebook.
    Release updates on Language Server Protocols (LSPs) for Elixir and Erlang, detailing new features and improvements like autocomplete and diagnostics.
    https://twitter.com/zeddotdev/status/1757882887972528152 – Zed, a high-performance, multiplayer code editor now offers support for Erlang.
    https://zed.dev/ – Zed editor's official website where you can find more information about its capabilities and open source nature.
    https://twitter.com/thmsmlr/status/1762210503810507140 – Thomas Millar introduces kino_livereload, a library for LiveBook to auto-reload cells when source code changes.
    https://github.com/thmsmlr/kino_livereload – GitHub repository for kino_livereload, showcasing its live reload feature for LiveBook cells.
    https://fly.io/phoenix-files/what-if-s3-could-be-a-fast-globally-synced-key-value-database-that-s-tigris/ – An article describing Tigris, a globally-synced, S3-compatible file storage service designed for Fly.io.
    Explanation of how Elixir applications can take advantage of Tigris as a key-value store using :erlang.term_to_binary for storing any Elixir data structure.
    https://twitter.com/wojtekmach/status/1759511154131427516 – Release announcement for Req v0.4.10, an HTTP client for Elixir with added functionality for stubbing responses in concurrent tests.
    https://elixirforum.com/t/req-a-batteries-included-http-client-for-elixir/48494/34 – Elixir Forum discussion thread about the latest updates and features in Req.
    https://hexdocs.pm/req/Req.Test.html – Documentation for the Req.Test module, detailing new functions for stubbing HTTP responses in tests.
    https://github.com/elixir-nx/bumblebee/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md – Changelog for Bumblebee's recent releases, including updates and new feature highlights.
    Mention of contributions from Jonatan Kłosko and added Bumblebee features such as Mistral LLM support and the :seed option for generating inputs.
    https://twitter.com/polvalente/status/1762234885777817666 – Nx v0.7.0 is released with EXLA's MLIR implementation, enabling new possibilities like quantization and Apple Metal support.
    https://github.com/brainlid/langchain – Update to the Elixir LangChain library to align with the latest features of Bumblebee, allowing conversations with various LLMs.
    Additional details on how the updated LangChai

    • 1 hr
    191: Operational Elixir: What's Supporting the Apps at Felt.com and SleepEasy.app?

    191: Operational Elixir: What's Supporting the Apps at Felt.com and SleepEasy.app?

    In this special episode, we kick off a brand-new series that dives into the world of Elixir—but with a twist. We're exploring the systems surrounding the language and what it takes to support and run a company or team that uses Elixir. Join us as we engage in insightful conversations with various industry voices, starting with Tyler Young, about the practical systems and solutions used by businesses like Felt.com and SleepEasy.app. This series promises to be an enlightening journey for anyone curious about the behind-the-scenes workings of an Elixir-based product. Tune in to hear the unique challenges and successes experienced by others in the field and more!


    Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/191


    Elixir Community News



    https://github.com/erlang/otp/pull/8111 – Erlang's potential new OTP json module is showing significant performance improvements in recent benchmarks.
    https://twitter.com/michalmuskala/status/1759932700624912832 – Michał Muskała shares insights online about future Elixir idiomatic wrapper around the new OTP json module.
    https://www.erlang.org/news/167 – OTP 27-RC1 was released with new features like the maybe expression and Triple-Quoted Strings.
    https://github.com/erlang/otp/ – Official repository for Erlang/OTP where the 27-RC1 release can be found.
    https://twitter.com/_uwu_cocoa/status/1758878453309505958 – Tweet mentioning that Erlang 27.0-rc1 runs natively on ARM64 Windows.
    https://fly.io/blog/tigris-public-beta/ – Fly.io announces a new globally distributed object storage solution that supports the S3 API.
    https://github.com/elixir-webrtc/ex_webrtc – New WebRTC library for Elixir called ex_webrtc is introduced.
    https://blog.swmansion.com/introducing-elixir-webrtc-a37ece4bfca1 – Blog post introducing ex_webrtc, detailing the motivation and development of the new WebRTC library for Elixir.
    https://membrane.stream/ – Membrane Framework site; although ex_webrtc was created due to certain challenges with Membrane, Membrane is noted for its pipeline model.
    https://www.w3.org/TR/webrtc/ – The W3C WebRTC specification, which ex_webrtc implements in Elixir, is more JS focused.
    The Erlang Ecosystem Foundation recently celebrated their 5 year anniversary, highlighting the community's achievements.
    https://github.com/gleam-lang/gleam/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc2 – Release of Gleam v1.0.0-rc2 which includes a bug fix for the compiler.
    Announcement about ElixirConf US, with a call for training classes and upcoming call for talks.


    Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at @ThinkingElixir or email at show@thinkingelixir.com


    Discussion Resources



    https://felt.com/
    https://sleepeasy.app/
    https://twitter.com/TylerAYoung/status/1730253716073148470 – Tyler shared on X when he bought his physical hardware
    https://sentry.io/for/elixir/
    https://www.appsignal.com/elixir
    https://felt.com/blog/startup-and-shutdown-for-phoenix-applications
    https://retool.com
    https://www.heap.io/


    Guest Information



    https://twitter.com/TylerAYoung – on Twitter
    https://github.com/s3cur3 – on Github
    https://fosstodon.org/@tylerayoung – on Fediverse
    https://tylerayoung.com/ – Blog


    Find us online



    Message the show - @ThinkingElixir
    Message the show on Fediverse - @ThinkingElixir@genserver.social
    Email the show - show@thinkingelixir.com
    Mark Ericksen - @brainlid
    Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - @brainlid@genserver.social
    David Bernheisel - @bernheisel
    David Bernheisel on Fediverse - @dbern@genserver.social
    Cade Ward - @cadebward
    Cade Ward on Fediverse - @cadebward@genserver.social
    Sponsored By:
    Fly.io: Fly.io is a great place to deploy your next Phoenix application! Check them out!

    • 45 min
    190: Thinking Elixir News

    190: Thinking Elixir News

    In this episode, we delve into the significant updates to Phoenix LiveView with its march towards 1.0, including crucial bug fixes in the latest v0.20.5 release. We explore the sleek new testing utility for Elixir, example_test, that's redefining readability in code tests. Plus, the Erlang community is abuzz with a fresh proposal to integrate JSON into the standard library. We'll look into how Fly.io has made GPU instances widely available and what this means for your projects. Don't miss out as we discuss these topics, Gleam's journey toward its 1.0.0 release, and more!


    Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/190


    Elixir Community News



    https://twitter.com/elixirphoenix/status/1755593690863620319 – Announcement of Phoenix LiveView v0.20.5 release on Twitter.
    https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix_live_view/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md – Changelog for Phoenix LiveView v0.20.5 detailing deprecations and bug fixes.
    https://twitter.com/germsvel/status/1754834825457127606 – German Velasco's tip for printing the name of a currently executed function in a test without prior knowledge.
    https://github.com/erlang/eep/pull/59 – Pull request proposing the addition of a JSON module to the Erlang standard library.
    https://github.com/michalmuskala/eep/blob/json-eep/eeps/eep-0068.md – EEP68 document with details about the proposed JSON support interface for the Erlang standard library.
    https://twitter.com/TylerAYoung/status/1757391526668202060 – Tyler Young announcing a new testing library, example_test, for Elixir on Twitter.
    https://github.com/s3cur3/example_test – GitHub repository for example_test, a utility for defining readable example-based tests in Elixir.
    https://fly.io/blog/gpu-ga/ – Announcement that Fly GPUs are now generally available and no longer on a waitlist.
    https://github.com/acalejos/merquery – Merquery library release, offering a Postman-like Livebook kino cell for interactive queries in Elixir.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clsTrQUt-4M – YouTube video of Louis Pilfold's "Past, Present, Future" talk at FOSDEM 2024 on the language Gleam.
    https://twitter.com/gleamlang/status/1756376900782399629 – Twitter announcement of Gleam Lang v1.0.0-rc.1 release.
    https://github.com/gleam-lang/gleam/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc1 – GitHub release page for Gleam v1.0.0-rc.1.
    https://github.com/gleam-lang/gleam/blob/v1.0.0-rc1/CHANGELOG.md – Changelog for Gleam v1.0.0-rc.1 highlighting new features and changes.


    Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at @ThinkingElixir or email at show@thinkingelixir.com


    Find us online



    Message the show - @ThinkingElixir
    Message the show on Fediverse - @ThinkingElixir@genserver.social
    Email the show - show@thinkingelixir.com
    Mark Ericksen - @brainlid
    Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - @brainlid@genserver.social
    David Bernheisel - @bernheisel
    David Bernheisel on Fediverse - @dbern@genserver.social
    Cade Ward - @cadebward
    Cade Ward on Fediverse - @cadebward@genserver.social
    Sponsored By:
    Fly.io: Fly.io is a great place to deploy your next Phoenix application! Check them out!

    • 20 min
    189: Thinking Elixir News

    189: Thinking Elixir News

    In this week's podcast, we cover the release of Elixir 1.16.1 with its various bug fixes, delve into German Velasco's ExUnit testing tip for running tests in parallel, explore the performance boosts experienced by Thomas Millar after upgrading to Bandit, and celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Inch, René Föhring's documentation analysis tool. We also discuss the innovative use of Elixir Protocols for customized route parameters in Phoenix, the creation of a new Kino for embedding YouTube videos into Livebook, and a stark reminder of the potential dark side of AI and ML with a deepfake phishing scam that cost a company $25 million, and more!


    Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/189


    Elixir Community News



    https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/tag/v1.16.1 – Elixir 1.16.1 release with bug fixes for Elixir, IEx, and Mix.
    https://twitter.com/germsvel/status/1752296600024543386 – German Velasco's tip on using temporary directories in ExUnit for parallel testing.
    https://twitter.com/thmsmlr/status/1749628412073857340 – Thomas Millar's experience on upgrading to Bandit which improved CPU and latency performance.
    https://github.com/mtrudel/bandit – Bandit, an Elixir HTTP server toolkit, mentioned for its performance benefits.
    https://twitter.com/philipbrown/status/1753009553904701753 – Philip Brown's insight on using Elixir Protocols to select different params for verified routes.
    https://twitter.com/ac_alejos/status/1754020191976001729 – Announcement of a Kino for embedding YouTube videos in Livebook by Andrés Alejos.
    https://github.com/acalejos/kino_youtube – GitHub repository for kino_youtube for embedding YouTube content in Livebook.
    https://twitter.com/rrrene/status/1751920017870860422 – Celebration of the 10 year anniversary of Inch by René Föhring.
    https://rrrene.org/2024/01/28/inch-turns-ten/ – More on the 10 year anniversary of Inch, a documentation analysis tool.
    https://youtu.be/RABXu7zqnT0?si=1sQUtAyRmlYbVMae&t=50 – Thomas Millar's talk on InstructorEx, a bridge between Elixir and AI.
    https://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/185 – Episode 185 of the Thinking Elixir podcast discussing InstructorEx.
    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html – CNN article about a deepfake scam that tricked a finance worker into paying $25 million.
    Explanation of the deepfake video call scam and a reminder of the potential misuse of AI and ML.


    Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at @ThinkingElixir or email at show@thinkingelixir.com


    Find us online



    Message the show - @ThinkingElixir
    Message the show on Fediverse - @ThinkingElixir@genserver.social
    Email the show - show@thinkingelixir.com
    Mark Ericksen - @brainlid
    Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - @brainlid@genserver.social
    David Bernheisel - @bernheisel
    David Bernheisel on Fediverse - @dbern@genserver.social
    Cade Ward - @cadebward
    Cade Ward on Fediverse - @cadebward@genserver.social
    Sponsored By:
    Fly.io: Fly.io is a great place to deploy your next Phoenix application! Check them out!

    • 12 min
    188: Thinking Elixir News

    188: Thinking Elixir News

    In this week's news, we follow-up on Erlang's use of ExDoc with José Valim's reveal of upcoming features for ExDoc that promises to enhance documentation experiences. We'll also explore the return of the Elixir Slack inviter, now powered by a Plug app, and take a look at the latest PhoenixTest project, aiming to unify testing workflows for LiveView and static pages. Plus, we discuss adding sound effects to LiveView with Howler.js and get a sneak peek at the Nx library's newest Explorer v0.8 release, bridging Elixir to GPU operations for data exploration, and more!


    Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/188


    Elixir Community News



    https://twitter.com/josevalim/status/1749453086232351173 – José Valim shared insights on big plans for ExDoc, including autocompletion and cross-package search, following Erlang's adoption of ExDocs with OTP 27.
    https://elixir-lang.slack.com/archives/C03EPRA3B/p1706132703749299 – Return of the Elixir Slack inviter, now through a Plug app that redirects to Slack invites.
    https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir-lang.github.com/pull/1746 – Users are encouraged to help maintain the Elixir Slack community's health by contributing invite tokens.
    https://github.com/sorentwo/elixir-slack – GitHub project for the Elixir Plug application managing Slack invite redirections.
    https://github.com/dashbitco/nimble_ownership – New NimbleOwnership library for tracking resource ownership across processes, useful for isolating resource access in test suites.
    https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_test – PhoenixTest project by German Velasco to unify feature testing for LiveView and static pages in Elixir.
    https://twitter.com/germsvel/status/1751971517326414063 – Announcement of the PhoenixTest project that aims to provide seamless navigation and testing between LiveView and static pages.
    https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_test/readme.html#why-phoenixtest – An explanation of the reasoning behind the creation of the PhoenixTest project for a unified testing experience.
    https://fly.io/phoenix-files/making-phoenix-liveview-sing/ – A guide on adding sound effects to LiveView pages, dealing with browser restrictions and integrating with Howler.js for user interaction.
    https://cigrainger.com/explorer-0-8-0/ – Release details of Explorer v0.8 in the Nx library, a tool for data exploration in Elixir that transitions smoothly between Elixir's syntax and GPU operations.
    https://github.com/elixir-explorer/explorer – GitHub repository for the Explorer library, part of the Nx ecosystem, that provides spreadsheet-like functionalities for Elixir.


    Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at @ThinkingElixir or email at show@thinkingelixir.com


    Find us online



    Message the show - @ThinkingElixir
    Message the show on Fediverse - @ThinkingElixir@genserver.social
    Email the show - show@thinkingelixir.com
    Mark Ericksen - @brainlid
    Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - @brainlid@genserver.social
    David Bernheisel - @bernheisel
    David Bernheisel on Fediverse - @dbern@genserver.social
    Cade Ward - @cadebward
    Cade Ward on Fediverse - @cadebward@genserver.social
    Sponsored By:
    Fly.io: Fly.io is a great place to deploy your next Phoenix application! Check them out!

    • 16 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
29 Ratings

29 Ratings

critter1485 ,

New Elixirian

Recently started learning functional programming and subsequently elixir. I found this podcast and love the blend of general tech discussion and more focused elixir talking points. Favorite episode so far is “End of local host development.”

thehamberdler ,

Thinking About Thinking Elixir

This may be the best podcast about Elixir. The episodes are released at a regular cadence, the audio and conversion quality is great, and the topics don’t feel repetitive. The weekly news summaries are super handy.

And, the intro music can’t be beat. 😁

Cadicles ,

Excited for more!

Excited to hear more from this podcast!

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