Lars Wikman, an influential member of the Nerves community, shares exciting updates on Nerves Hub and Nerves Cloud. He discusses the groundbreaking release of Phoenix LiveView 1.0 and the enhancements in Elixir 1.18, including built-in JSON support. Lars also unveils Amazon’s Aurora DSQL, a new serverless database solution. The conversation dives into the integration of NERVS with LiveView and the launch of official merchandise for Elixir and NERVS fans, fostering community spirit through unique apparel.
Phoenix LiveView 1.0's release serves as both a significant milestone for its stability and a collection of enhanced features for real-time web applications.
Elixir 1.18 introduces improved type-checking capabilities and a new JSON library, making the language more user-friendly and efficient for developers.
Nerves Hub's update promotes firmware integrity and flexibility, offering new functionalities like device health monitoring to enhance operational versatility in projects.
Deep dives
Phoenix Live View 1.0 Release Overview
The release of Phoenix Live View 1.0 marks a significant milestone in its development, celebrating six years since the initial commit. This release is not just a collection of new features but also reflects on the journey and motivations that brought it to this point. It showcases various enhancements, such as interactive uploads and the addition of Heeks markup, which supports improved real-time interactions within web applications. The release is seen as a stabilizing factor for developers who have already adopted Live View in production environments, transforming it from a cutting-edge tool to a dependable standard.
Elixir 1.18 Key Features
Elixir 1.18 introduces notable improvements, particularly in its type system and the language server. The new set theoretic types enhance the type-checking capabilities by allowing the system to infer types from function headers and pattern matches, significantly aiding in error prevention during compile time. Additionally, an improved JSON library has been integrated into the standard library, facilitating better JSON handling within Elixir applications. The championing of user-friendliness in this release is aimed at helping developers gradually incorporate advanced features without the need for extensive code annotations.
Nerves Hub 2.x Update
Nerves Hub's recent update to version 2.x includes an extension mechanism designed to maintain firmware update integrity while introducing new functionality. This mechanism allows developers to add optional features to their Nerves devices without disrupting the essential firmware update process. New features like device health monitoring and geolocation capabilities are now implemented through this extension system, enhancing the operational versatility of Nerves-based devices. The importance of these updates is underscored by their practical application in projects with significant device fleets, such as SmartRent, which relies on reliable firmware management.
Improved Testing Capabilities in Elixir
Elixir 1.18 enhances testing functionality with the introduction of parameterized tests and support for concurrent test execution. This allows developers to run the same test module multiple times with different parameters while grouping tests by their shared state to run concurrently, thus increasing testing efficiency. These advancements aim to streamline the testing process, specifically for larger codebases that require extensive testing across various scenarios. The added capability provides better resource management, making it easier to achieve robust test coverage without redundantly executing tests that share no dependencies.
Nerves Cloud and Community Engagement
Nerves Cloud aims to simplify the deployment of Nerves devices with a managed service that facilitates firmware updates and monitoring. Currently in the soft launch phase, it allows users to sign up for early access, with plans to support both personal and commercial projects. The initiative is reflective of a broader community engagement strategy, where significant feedback is encouraged to refine the offering before full-scale release. Alongside this, a new platform for purchasing official Elixir and Nerves branded merchandise has been introduced, facilitating community connection through shared identifiers.
News includes the long-awaited release of Phoenix LiveView 1.0, exciting enhancements in Elixir 1.18 such as built-in JSON support and improved ExUnit testing capabilities, and the unveiling of AWS Aurora DSQL, a serverless distributed PostgreSQL-compatible database service. Lars Wikman joins us to share updates about Nerves, including the latest on Nerves Hub, Nerves Cloud, and his project oswag.org where you can find official Elixir and Nerves T-shirts. All this and more!