We're back for Backend Banter Season 2, and we bring a very special guest, José Valim, the creator of the Elixir Programming Language, one of the most popular and loved functional programming languages of today. (Fun fact: it's used in production at Discord).

We cover the nitty-gritty of the language, ranging from simple topics such as the decision behind not making Elixir be statically typed, into the more complex cross-machine communication. We go over how Elixir's features compare with those of other languages, work habits of today's developers, José's own day-to-day development, and a lot more!

Today's talk encompasses a great variety of themes, so grab your coffee and tune in!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Livebook & Elixir Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pas9WdWIBHs

Elixir Programming Language: https://elixir-lang.org/

Livebook: https://livebook.dev/

Elixir In Action Book: https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action-third-edition

José's Socials:

X/Twitter: https://x.com/josevalim

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josevalim

GitHub: https://github.com/josevalim

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:06 - Embarrassing Stories with Foreign Languages

02:58 - Who is José Valim? (and Elixir's Popularity)

06:51 - Does José Use Phoenix a Lot?

08:28 - Why Isn't Elixir Statically Typed?

16:51 - External Input vs. Internal Code Logic

28:16 - Quick Overview of BEAM languages

31:23 - Elixir’s Equivalent to Golang’s Goroutines & Channels

42:43 - Cross-Machine Communication in Standard Libraries

49:15 - Do You Need RabbitMQ When Writing Elixir?

54:53 - Built-In Features in the Standard Library

01:01:52 - Why People Are Too Used To Work The Hard Way

01:04:22 - José and DHH

01:08:01 - Favorite Elixir Features & Immutability

01:17:49 - Purity in Functional Programming

01:21:35 - Where to find José

Episode 166: Episode 166: Thomas Harmon on Augustine and Philosophy