Digit on Smart Homes, EMPEX, and Cross-platform Development

Welcome back to another episode of Elixir Wizards. Today, we chat with Digit, a talented software engineer currently based at SmartRent. He became aware of the company when he started trying to modify his smart home and realized what was behind the software. Digit works on building applications within the SmartRent suite of tools using the Nerves ecosystem. Although fairly new at SmartRent, Digit loves the powerful applications of the software they are developing. In today’s show we find out more about the work Digit is currently involved with at SmartRent and what they have in store for the future. We also discuss the pros and cons of living in a smart home, the different languages that Digit uses, what makes developing a game so challenging, Using Elixir for building DSLs to generate content for Unity, what Digit’s opinion is of Burrito, and much more! For all this and more, be sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introduction to today’s show and brief catch-up of what everyone has been up to.
• We find out what talks at the conference Digit is most looking forward to.
• What OTP stands for: hint, it is not ‘Open Telephony Platform.’
• A brief discussion about the advantages of a one-day conference.
• We find out who all the people are that are going to give talks at EMPEX.
• Digit shares what it has been like working at SmartRent.
• We find out how Digit landed the job at SmartRent.
• Breakdown of what SmartRent is in terms of the high level.
• We get some insider knowledge of the next-generation technology at SmartRent.
• Rundown of what Flutter is and the advantages of using it.
• Discussion about the pros and cons of living in a smart home.
• Find out what the best smart thermostat is, according to Digit.
• The different programming languages that Digit is currently working in.
• Digit explains the type of WebSocket support available in Flutter.
• Background about Digit’s experience in game development.
• What makes finishing developing a game so difficult.
• The language stack used to develop games.
• Using Elixir for building DSLs to generate content for Unity.
• Digit gives listeners an overview of Burrito.
• The advantages of using Burrito for cross-platform with no internet connection.
• Examples of real-world applications using Burrito.
• Other applications for Elixir outside of web application development.
• We get some insider information about a new Elixir-based project in the works.
• A rundown of the security applications using Macaroons.
• The power that passwordless authentication has to offer.
• We end the show with some takeaways from Digit for listeners.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Digit — https://puppy.surf
Digit on GitHub — https://github.com/doawoo
Digit on Twitter — https://twitter.com/doawoo
SmartRent — https://smartrent.com
SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/
Sundi Myint on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sundikhin/
Owen Bickford on Twitter — https://twitter.com/owenbickford/
EMPEX — https://www.empex.co
Flutter — https://flutter.dev/

Special Guest: Digit.