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Elixir vs Lua: What are the differences?
- Syntax: Elixir uses a Ruby-inspired syntax that focuses on developer productivity and readability, while Lua uses a minimalist syntax that aims to be simple and efficient.
- Concurrency: Elixir is built around the Erlang virtual machine, which provides robust support for concurrency, fault tolerance, and distribution, making it ideal for building scalable and resilient systems. Lua, on the other hand, lacks built-in support for concurrency and relies on third-party libraries for such functionalities.
- Metaprogramming: Elixir has a powerful metaprogramming system that allows developers to modify and extend the language itself, enabling the creation of domain-specific languages and advanced abstractions. Lua, while also supporting metaprogramming, lacks the same level of flexibility and expressiveness as Elixir.
- Community: Elixir has a growing and vibrant community that actively develops new libraries, tools, and frameworks for the language, fostering innovation and accelerating development. Lua, although widely used in the game development industry, has a smaller and less active community compared to Elixir.
- Tooling: Elixir comes with a rich set of tools, including a built-in build tool (Mix), testing framework (ExUnit), and dependency management system (Hex), which streamline the development and deployment processes. Lua, while having some tools available, lacks the comprehensive tooling ecosystem found in Elixir.
- Type System: Elixir is a dynamically typed language with strong type inference capabilities, allowing developers to write concise and expressive code without sacrificing type safety. Lua, on the other hand, is dynamically typed with weaker type checking, which can lead to potential runtime errors if not carefully managed.
In Summary, Elixir and Lua differ in syntax, concurrency support, metaprogramming capabilities, community size, tooling ecosystem, and type system.
I am trying to make Roblox game which requires Lua. I quite don't want to go with Lua just because other tools just might let me do more projects later on. I heard that Python is most similar to Lua, but I am still not sure which tool to use. Java, I think it will help me with many stuff later on for websites, projects, and more!
Since you are trying to make a Roblox game, you have no other option than to use Lua, since Roblox only allows coding in Lua. Yes, you've heard right, Python is identical and as easy as Lua, although Lua is easier than Python. Beginning from Lua and then escalating to Python is recommended. Java is only helpful when you are creating a heavy, big-budget, enterprise-level product, otherwise, Python would suffice.
If you really hate lua check out roblox-ts, a tool that compiles typescript code into roblox lua. https://github.com/roblox-ts/roblox-ts
#rust #elixir So am creating a messenger with voice call capabilities app which the user signs up using phone number and so at first i wanted to use Actix so i learned Rust so i thought to myself because well its first i felt its a bit immature to use actix web even though some companies are using Rust but we cant really say the full potential of Rust in a full scale app for example in Discord both Elixir and Rust are used meaning there is equal need for them but for Elixir so many companies use it from Whatsapp, Wechat, etc and this means something for Rust is not ready to go full scale we cant assume all this possibilities when it come Rust. So i decided to go the Erlang way after alot of Thinking so Do you think i made the right decision?Am 19 year programmer so i assume am not experienced as you so your answer or comment would really valuable to me
We have a lot of experience in JavaScript, writing our services in NodeJS allows developers to transition to the back end without any friction, without having to learn a new language. There is also the option to write services in TypeScript, which adds an expressive type layer. The semi-shared ecosystem between front and back end is nice as well, though specifically NodeJS libraries sometimes suffer in quality, compared to other major languages.
As for why we didn't pick the other languages, most of it comes down to "personal preference" and historically grown code bases, but let's do some post-hoc deduction:
Go is a practical choice, reasonably easy to learn, but until we find performance issues with our NodeJS stack, there is simply no reason to switch. The benefits of using NodeJS so far outweigh those of picking Go. This might change in the future.
PHP is a language we're still using in big parts of our system, and are still sometimes writing new code in. Modern PHP has fixed some of its issues, and probably has the fastest development cycle time, but it suffers around modelling complex asynchronous tasks, and (on a personal note) lack of support for writing in a functional style.
We don't use Python, Elixir or Ruby, mostly because of personal preference and for historic reasons.
Rust, though I personally love and use it in my projects, would require us to specifically hire for that, as the learning curve is quite steep. Its web ecosystem is OK by now (see https://www.arewewebyet.org/), but in my opinion, it is still no where near that of the other web languages. In other words, we are not willing to pay the price for playing this innovation card.
Haskell, as with Rust, I personally adore, but is simply too esoteric for us. There are problem domains where it shines, ours is not one of them.
Pros of Elixir
- Concurrency172
- Functional161
- Erlang vm133
- Great documentation112
- Great tooling105
- Immutable data structures86
- Open source81
- Pattern-matching77
- Easy to get started62
- Actor library59
- Functional with a neat syntax32
- Ruby inspired29
- Erlang evolved25
- Homoiconic24
- Beauty of Ruby, Speed of Erlang/C22
- Fault Tolerant17
- Simple14
- High Performance13
- Pipe Operator11
- Good lang11
- Doc as first class citizen11
- Fun to write9
- Stinkin' fast, no memory leaks, easy on the eyes9
- Resilient to failure8
- OTP8
- GenServer takes the guesswork out of background work6
- Idempotence4
- Pattern matching4
- Not Swift4
- Fast, Concurrent with clean error messages4
- Easy to use3
- Error isolation2
- Dynamic Typing2
Pros of Lua
- Fast learning curve41
- Very easy to embed in C programs26
- Efficient memory usage26
- Open source20
- Good for game scripting19
- Pretty simple to learn9
- Quick to code8
- Simple Language8
- Syntax is amazing7
- Supported in most game engines7
- D6
- Coroutines2
- Can be used for a wide variety of development1
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Cons of Elixir
- Fewer jobs for Elixir experts11
- Smaller userbase than other mainstream languages7
- Elixir's dot notation less readable ("object": 1st arg)5
- Dynamic typing4
- Difficult to understand1
- Not a lot of learning books available1
Cons of Lua
- Nooby4
- Not widespread2
- D1
- Python0
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