Elixir Wizards

It’s the Season 10 finale of the Elixir Wizards podcast! José Valim, Guillaume Duboc, and Giuseppe Castagna join Wizards Owen Bickford and Dan Ivovich to dive into the prospect of types in the Elixir programming language! They break down their research on set-theoretical typing and highlight their goal of creating a type system that supports as many Elixir idioms as possible while balancing simplicity and pragmatism. José, Guillaume, and Giuseppe talk about what initially sparked this project, the challenges in bringing types to Elixir, and the benefits that the Elixir community can expect from this exciting work. Guillaume's formalization and Giuseppe's "cutting-edge research" balance José's pragmatism and "Guardian of Orthodoxy" role. Decades of theory meet the needs of a living language, with open challenges like multi-process typing ahead. They come together with a shared joy of problem-solving that will accelerate Elixir's continued growth. Key Topics Discussed in this Episode: Adding type safety to Elixir through set theoretical typing How the team chose a type system that supports as many Elixir idioms as possible Balancing simplicity and pragmatism in type system design Addressing challenges like typing maps, pattern matching, and guards The tradeoffs between Dialyzer and making types part of the core language Advantages of typing for catching bugs, documentation, and tooling The differences between typing in the Gleam programming language vs. Elixir The possibility of type inference in a set-theoretic type system The history and development of set-theoretic types over 20 years Gradual typing techniques for integrating typed and untyped code How José and Giuseppe initially connected through research papers Using types as a form of "mechanized documentation" The risks and tradeoffs of choosing syntax Cheers to another decade of Elixir! A big thanks to this season’s guests and all the listeners! Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode: Bringing Types to Elixir | Guillaume Duboc & Giuseppe Castagna | ElixirConf EU 2023 Keynote: Celebrating the 10 Years of Elixir | José Valim | ElixirConf EU 2022 OCaml industrial-strength functional programming https://ocaml.org/ ℂDuce: a language for transformation of XML documents http://www.cduce.org/ Ballerina coding language https://ballerina.io/ Luau coding language https://luau-lang.org/ Gleam type language https://gleam.run/ "The Design Principles of the Elixir Type System" by G. Castagna, G. Duboc, and J. Valim "A Gradual Type System for Elixir" by M. Cassola, A. Talagorria, A. Pardo, and M. Viera "Programming with union, intersection, and negation types", by Giuseppe Castagna "Covariance and Contravariance: a fresh look at an old issue (a primer in advanced type systems for learning functional programmers)" by Giuseppe Castagna "A reckless introduction to Hindley-Milner type inference"Special Guests: Giuseppe Castagna, Guillaume Duboc, and José Valim.

Phoenix core team members Chris McCord and Jason Stiebs join Elixir Wizards Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford the growth of Phoenix and LiveView, the latest updates, and what they're excited to see in the future. They express excitement for the possibilities of machine learning, AI, and distributed systems and how these emerging technologies will enhance the user experience of Elixir and LiveView applications in the next decade. Key Topics Discussed in this Episode: How community contributions and feedback help improve Phoenix LiveView The addition of function components, declarative assigns, HEEx, and streams Why Ecto changesets should be used as "fire and forget" data structures Excitement about machine learning and AI with libraries like NX The possibility of distributed systems and actors in the future Verifying and solving issues in the Phoenix and LiveView issue trackers Why marketing plays a part in the adoption and mindshare of Phoenix How streams provide a primitive for arbitrarily large dynamic lists Elixir VM's ability to scale to millions of connections A creative use of form inputs for associations with dynamic children Links Mentioned in this Episode: Fly Site https://fly.io/ Keynote: The Road To LiveView 1.0 by Chris McCord | ElixirConf EU 2023 Keynote: I Was Wrong About LiveView by Jason Stiebs | ElixirConf 2022 Phoenix Site https://www.phoenixframework.org/ Phoenix Github https://github.com/phoenixframework Two-Story, 10-Room Purple Martin House Blog: The Road to 2 Million Websocket Connections in Phoenix Raxx Elixir Webserver Interface https://hexdocs.pm/raxx/0.4.1/readme.html Livebook Site https://livebook.dev/ Sundi’s 6’x 6’ Phoenix painting Surface on Hex https://hex.pm/packages/surface Axon Deep Learning Framework https://hexdocs.pm/axon/Axon.html Nx Numerical Elixir https://hexdocs.pm/nx/intro-to-nx.html Phoenix PubSub https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_pubsub/Phoenix.PubSub.html Jason Stiebs on Twitter https://twitter.com/peregrine Jason Stiebs on Mastodon https://merveilles.town/@peregrineSpecial Guests: Chris McCord and Jason Stiebs.

Sean Moriarity, author of Genetic Algorithms in Elixir and creator of the Axon Library, joins Elixir Wizards Sundi Myint and Bilal Hankins to discuss Elixir’s role in the future of machine learning and AI. He explains the difference between artificial intelligence, chat models, machine learning, deep learning systems, and neural networks. Large language models have great potential for code generation, education tools, streamlining workflow, and more. Deployment, development experience, and real-time processing make Elixir an ideal programming language for creating and improving machine learning tools. Key Topics Discussed in this Episode: The difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence How Axon builds on top of the Nx library for deep learning in Elixir Why logic cannot fully define characteristics that identify golden retrievers How Google Translate uses machine learning with a unified language model The difficulties in translating concepts with no direct counterpart between languages Data cleaning and labeling challenges How Sean's interest in sports betting led to exploring machine learning Why Sean's NBA betting model recommended betting $0 to maximize profit Getting started with machine learning and Elixir projects Attention mechanisms in neural networks Bias and exceptions in machine translation models How hummus preference was used to determine Sundi's Hogwarts house Sean's work on a LiveView interface for ChatGPT Why Elixir's deployment story, development experience, and real-time processing are good fits for machine learning applications Links Mentioned: Genetic Algorithms in Elixir by Sean Moriarity: https://pragprog.com/titles/smgaelixir/genetic-algorithms-in-elixir/ Axon Deep Learning in Elixir: https://seanmoriarity.com/2021/04/08/axon-deep-learning-in-elixir/ Nx Axon: https://github.com/elixir-nx/axon Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sean_moriarity Weston the Golden’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/westonthegolden_/ Sean’s Github: https://github.com/seanmor5 Bumblebee: https://github.com/elixir-nx/bumblebee Sal Khan’s TedTalk about AI in Education: https://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_how_ai_could_save_not_destroy_education/c Publicly Available Datasets/Intro to Machine Learning: https://www.kaggle.com/ Use code WIZARD for $100 off your ticket to Empex NYC in Brooklyn, NY on June 9, 2023 https://ti.to/empex-ny/empex-nyc-2023Special Guest: Sean Moriarity.

In this episode of the Elixir Wizards podcast, hosts Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford are joined by Hugo Baraúna, founder at Elixir Radar, and Lucas San Roman, senior software engineer at Felt. We dive into the future of the Elixir community, how we stay connected, and the remarkable culture that has developed over the past decade. Key highlights in this episode: The Elixir community's warm and inviting atmosphere Commitment to long-term stability and innovation in the Elixir community How projects like Nerves, Phoenix LiveView, and Livebook expand Elixir's capabilities Global connections and support among Elixirists via Slack and Discord The Elixir Radar newsletter provides up-to-date Elixir news and community developments Getting “nerd sniped” by the community Hugo Baraúna's motivation behind Elixir Radar and its impact on the tech industry Networking opportunities and relationship-building within the community Lucas San Roman's commitment to giving back with the Sourcerer Library Plans for more advanced collaboration in Livebook with the new Teams feature The potential introduction of a type system in Elixir Links mentioned in this episode: Elixir Radar: https://elixir-radar.com/ Felt: https://felt.com/ Ruby Weekly: https://rubyweekly.com/ The Elixir Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/elixir Code Fragment: https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/Code.Fragment.html The Sourcerer Library: https://github.com/doorgan/sourceror Livebook: https://livebook.dev/ Lucas’ Blog: https://dorgan.ar/ Hugo’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/hugobarauna Elixir Radar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/elixir_radar Livebook on Twitter: https://twitter.com/livebookdev Lucas’ Twitter https://twitter.com/dorgan_ Guillaume Duboc Bringing Types to Elixir at ElixirConf EU 2023 Lucas on GitHub: https://github.com/doorgan Rooster Fighter on Easter Island Rooster Fighter at Iguazu Falls in Argentina Use code WIZARD for $100 off your ticket to Empex NYC in Brooklyn, NY on June 9, 2023Special Guests: Hugo Baraúna and Lucas San Roman.

Today on Elixir Wizards, José Valim, creator of the Elixir programming language, joins hosts Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford to discuss the future of Elixir, upcoming features, changes to the language and ecosystem, and the potential for a type system. José discusses how Elixir’s extensibility allows the ecosystem to grow with new tools and libraries, all while requiring few languages to the core language. Key Takeaways: The origin of the famous rainbow heart combo José’s hands-off approach to planning the ecosystem which allows community contribution without reliance on the core team The success and growth of the Elixir community Lessons learned in the first ten years of the language The evolution of Elixir's documentation and the role of Livebook in creating more interactive and engaging learning experiences The potential for Elixir Nx to make numerical computation, machine learning, and data science more accessible to Elixir developers Potential implementation of a gradual type system and the importance of backwards compatibility The role of the Elixir community in shaping the language's development and ecosystem, including the importance of open-source contributions Whether we’ll see Elixir 2.0 in the next decade Links mentioned in this episode: Josė Valim Keynote ElixirConf EU Bringing Elixir to Life Dashbit - https://dashbit.co/ Elixir programming language: https://elixir-lang.org/ ElixirConf: https://elixirconf.com/ ElixirForum: https://elixirforum.com/ Elixir's Logger library: https://hexdocs.pm/logger/Logger.html José's Twitter: https://twitter.com/josevalim ElixirLS (Elixir Language Server) https://github.com/elixir-lsp/elixir-ls Mermaid Charts in Livebook - https://news.livebook.dev/date/2022/1 IEx - https://hexdocs.pm/iex/1.14/IEx.html Numerical Elixir - Nx: https://hexdocs.pm/nx/getting-started.html Nerves: https://hexdocs.pm/nerves/getting-started.html Membrane: https://hexdocs.pm/membrane/getting-started.html Dialyxir: https://hexdocs.pm/dialyxir/readme.html LiveBook: https://hexdocs.pm/livebook/getting-started.html Bumblebee: https://github.com/elixir-nx/bumblebeeSpecial Guest: José Valim.

Today on Elixir Wizards, Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford are joined by Saša Jurić, distinguished developer, mentor, and author of Elixir in Action. They discuss the future of training and education in Elixir, challenges faced by new Elixir developers, Phoenix generators, peer mentorship, the emergence of types, and when it’s time to close the umbrella. Key Takeaways: The functional programming paradigm, the actor model, and concurrency Adapting to the Elixir syntax and tooling The role of community, mentorship, and continuous learning in Elixir education The pros and cons of Phoenix generators for Elixir development Customizing templates in the Phoenix priv directory to better suit individual needs The importance of understanding and adapting generated code for maintainability and proper abstractions Importance of having a clear separation between core and interface Adapting to different opinions and preferences within a development team Refactoring and restructuring code to improve quality and reduce complexity Static typing for better documentation and the limitations of dynamic code Umbrella apps vs. mix configuration and how to avoid complexity Links Mentioned in this Episode: Enter to win a copy of Elixir in Action: https://smr.tl/2023bookgiveaway Elixir in Action by Saša Jurić https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action 35% discount code for book on manning.com: podexwizards20 Saša’s Website/Blog TheErlangelist.com Towards Maintainable Elixir - Saša Jurić's Medium Blog Article Series Boundary: Managing cross-module dependencies in Elixir projects Site Encrypt: Integrated Certification via Let's Encrypt for Elixir-powered sites Authentication Generator in Phoenix: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/mix_phx_gen_auth.html Ecto query generator for Elixir https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.html GraphQL: Query language for APIs https://graphql.org/ Dialyxir: https://hexdocs.pm/dialyxir/readme.html Nx (Numerical Elixir) GitHub Repository: https://github.com/elixir-nx/nx ElixirLS (Elixir Language Server) GitHub Repository: https://github.com/elixir-lsp/elixir-lsSpecial Guest: Saša Jurić.

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Owen and Dan talk to Mat Trudel, Phoenix contributor and creator of the Bandit Web Server, about the future of Phoenix, web transports, and HTTP/3. Mat explains the challenges and benefits of implementing HTTP/3 support in Phoenix. Mat provides in-depth insights into the evolution of web protocols and encourages developers to continue pushing the boundaries of web development and to contribute to the growth of the open-source community. Main topics discussed in this episode: The evolution of web protocols and how HTTP/3 is changing the landscape The challenges and benefits of implementing HTTP/3 support in Phoenix How a home AC project revealed a gap in web server testing tools and inspired Bandit how web transports like Cowboy and Ranch are used to build scalable web servers WebSock for multiplexing data over a single WebSocket connection Mat’s philosophy on naming projects and his passion for malapropisms The Bandit project and how it can help developers better understand web protocols Autobahn, a testing suite for WebSocket protocol specification conformance The importance of community involvement in open-source projects Encouragement for more people to use Bandit and report bugs Links Mentioned: SmartLogic is Hiring: https://smartlogic.io/about/jobs PagerDuty: https://www.pagerduty.com Phoenix Framework: https://www.phoenixframework.org/ Cowboy: https://ninenines.eu/docs/en/cowboy/2.9/guide/introduction/ Ranch: https://github.com/ninenines/ranch Bandit - https://hexdocs.pm/bandit/Bandit.html Autobahn: https://github.com/crossbario/autobahn-testsuite HTTP Cats: https://http.cat/ Mat Trudel at Empex 2022 A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Phoenix Thousand Island - https://hexdocs.pm/thousand_island/ThousandIsland.htmlSpecial Guest: Mat Trudel.

Elixir Wizards Owen Bickford and Dan Ivovich are joined by Mike Waud, Senior Software Engineer at SparkMeter, and Tony Winn, Lead Software Architect at Generac, to discuss the future of the BEAM in the electric grid, how their companies use Elixir, and the challenges they face in implementing cutting-edge technologies in an environment with a mix of old and new systems. Both guests have backgrounds in various programming languages before turning to Elixir for its functional programming capabilities, concurrency, and reliability. Elixir's portability allows it to be used in various environments, from cloud-based systems to more conservative organizations that prefer running software off the cloud. Key topics discussed in this episode: • Technology sophistication varies across different regions and industries • BEAM's reliability, concurrency, and scaling in electric grid systems • Using Elixir for caching, telemetry, and managing traffic spikes • Elixir fits well for devices due to its fault tolerance and supervision trees • Observability with telemetry hooks for understanding system performance • Traffic patterns in the grid space are often dictated by weather and human activity, requiring efficient handling • The balance between using Elixir/BEAM and other tools depending on use case • Using Elixir tools like Broadway to work with event queues and Nebulex for distributed caching • The future of the electric grid and its evolution over the next 10 years, including a shift towards more distributed energy generation • Global lessons about grid management, solar penetration, regulations, and energy storage • Prioritizing data in IoT systems and processing data at the edge of the network • Gratitude for open-source contributors in the Elixir community Links in this episode: SparkMeter: https://www.sparkmeter.io/ Generac: https://www.generac.com/ SmartLogic - https://smartlogic.io/jobs Gary Bernhardt's talk on functional core and imperative shell: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/boundaries Joe Armstrong's Erlang book: https://pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang/ The Nerves podcast and documentation: https://nerves-project.org/Special Guests: Mike Waud and Tony Winn.

In today's episode, Sophie DeBenedetto emphasizes the importance of the Elixir community's commitment to education, documentation, and tools like liveBook, fostering an environment where people with varying skill levels can learn and contribute. The discussion highlights LiveView's capabilities and the role it plays in the future of Elixir, encouraging members to share knowledge and excitement for these tools through various channels. Sophie invites listeners to attend and submit their talks for the upcoming Empex conference, which aims to showcase the best in Elixir and LiveView technologies. Additionally, the group shares light-hearted moments, reminding everyone to contribute to all types of documentation and promoting an inclusive atmosphere. Key topics discussed in this episode: • Updates on the latest release of the Programming Phoenix LiveView book • The importance of community connection in Elixir conferences • The future of documentation in the Elixir ecosystem • The Elixir community's commitment to education and documentation • LiveBook as a valuable tool for learning and experimenting • Encouraging contributions across experience levels and skill sets • Importance of sharing knowledge through liveBooks, blog posts, and conference talks • Core Components in Phoenix LiveView, and modal implementation • Creating a custom component library for internal use • Reflecting on a Phoenix LiveView Project Experience • Ease of using Tailwind CSS and its benefits in web development • Advantages of LiveView in reducing complexity and speeding up project development • LiveView's potential to handle large datasets using Streams • The role of Elixir developers in the rapidly evolving AI landscape Links in this episode: Sophie DeBenedetto – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiedebenedetto Programming Phoenix LiveView Book – https://pragprog.com/titles/liveview/programming-phoenix-liveview Empex NYC - https://www.empex.co/new-york SmartLogic - https://smartlogic.io/jobs Phoenix LiveView documentation: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.html Live sessions and hooks: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.Router.html#live_session/1 LiveView: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.html Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/ Reuse Markup With Function Components and Slots LiveView Card Components With Bootstrap Building a Chat App With LiveView Streams Special Guest: Sophie DeBenedetto.

In today's episode of Elixir Wizards, Michael Lubas, founder of Paraxial.io, joins hosts Owen Bickford and Bilal Hankins to discuss security in the Elixir and Phoenix ecosystem. Lubas shares his insights on the most common security risks developers face, recent threats, and how Elixir developers can prepare for the future. Common security risks, including SQL injection and cross-site scripting, and how to mitigate these threats The importance of rate limiting and bot detection to prevent spam SMS messages Continuous security testing to maintain a secure application and avoid breaches Tools and resources available in the Elixir and Phoenix ecosystem to enhance security The Guardian library for authentication and authorization Take a drink every time someone says "bot" The difference between "bots" and AI language models The potential for evolving authentication, such as Passkeys over WebSocket How Elixir compares to other languages due to its immutability and the ability to trace user input Potion Shop, a vulnerable Phoenix application designed to test security Talking Tom, Sneaker Bots, and teenage hackers! The importance of security awareness and early planning in application development The impact of open-source software on application security How to address vulnerabilities in third-party libraries Conducting security audits and implementing security measures Links in this episode: Michael Lubas Email - michael@paraxial.io LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellubas/ Paraxial.io - https://paraxial.io/ Blog/Mailing List - https://paraxial.io/blog/index Potion Shop - https://paraxial.io/blog/potion-shop Elixir/Phoenix Security Live Coding: Preventing SQL Injection in Ecto Twitter - https://twitter.com/paraxialio LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/paraxial-io/ GenServer Social - https://genserver.social/paraxial YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@paraxial5874 Griffin Byatt on Sobelow: ElixirConf 2017 - Plugging the Security Holes in Your Phoenix Application Erlang Ecosystem Foundation: Security Working Group - https://erlef.org/wg/security Article by Bram - Client-Side Enforcement of LiveView SecuritySpecial Guest: Michael Lubas.