Best of Elixir — September 2024

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   Article

   Hacker News·2y

   How Discord Reduced Websocket Traffic by 40%

   Discord significantly reduced its websocket traffic by almost 40% through a series of compression optimizations, including switching from zlib to zstandard with streaming compression and introducing a new passive session update method. Initially, tests showed zstandard underperforming due to the lack of streaming support. After adding streaming and fine-tuning compression parameters, zstandard outperformed zlib. Additionally, switching from sending full updates to delta updates for passive sessions further reduced bandwidth usage.

   70
2. 2
   Article

   Elixir Forum·2y

   A free, 30min Elixir Quickstart Guide

   RunElixir.com 2 is a free, online quickstart guide designed to help developers get started with Elixir in 30 minutes. Inspired by the Rust by Example book and the Gleam language tour, it offers a condensed version of Elixir documentation and high-level introductions to various Elixir topics. It aims to show what Elixir and Erlang have to offer from a high level. Feedback and topic suggestions are welcomed.

   49
3. 3
   Article

   Awesome Elixir·2y

   PhxTools

   Phx.tools is a shell script designed for configuring the development environment for Elixir and Phoenix on Linux and macOS easily. By following a few simple steps, users can install the necessary components to start the database server, create new Phoenix applications, and launch the server effortlessly.

   25
4. 4
   Article

   DockYard·2y

   Introducing LVN Go

   LVN Go is introduced as an alternative to Xcode for developing LiveView Native applications. This app allows developers to run their applications directly on a device without needing Xcode. It supports iPhone, iPad, and MacOS. Key features include LiveReload, a shake-to-refresh functionality, and a versatile settings menu. The post also hints at future improvements, such as tree-sitter syntax highlighters and language server integrations.

   21

   1
5. 5
   Article

   AppSignal·2y

   Scaling Your Phoenix App in Elixir with FLAME

   FLAME is a new tool developed by the core Phoenix team to offload intensive tasks to remote nodes efficiently. It integrates seamlessly with Phoenix applications, offering built-in automatic scaling, minimal boilerplate code, and the ability to await results from background tasks. FLAME differs from other background job processing methods such as Task.async, Oban, and external serverless functions by simplifying setup and enhancing performance. It helps improve application responsiveness and offloads tasks from the main pipeline, making it an effective solution for scalable background job management in Elixir applications.

   20
6. 6
   Article

   Fly.io·2y

   AI GPU Clusters, From Your Laptop, With Livebook

   Livebook, FLAME, and the Nx stack are powerful components in the Elixir ecosystem that enhance data computation and serverless computing. Livebook integrates closely with Elixir app clusters for seamless local and remote compute, while FLAME manages serverless executors for scalable application performance. The Nx stack supports Elixir-native AI and ML, allowing complex computations with GPU backends. Recent demonstrations at ElixirConf 2024 highlighted their capabilities, including real-time hyperparameter tuning on remote GPUs, made possible by Fly.io's infrastructure.

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7. 7
   Video

   Awesome Elixir·2y

   The Secret Language Scaling WhatsApp and Discord

   Big companies like WhatsApp and Discord use Erlang and its modern counterpart, Elixir, for scaling real-time applications. Erlang's virtual machine (BEAM) and its focus on lightweight processes, message passing, and fault tolerance make it ideal for handling massive concurrency and high availability. Elixir builds on Erlang's strengths with a more modern syntax, making it easier to develop scalable, reliable apps. These companies leverage Erlang and Elixir to manage millions of users and ensure minimal downtime, showcasing the power and efficiency of these technologies.

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