[aitoehigie]

Can Elixir be termed a "niche" language?

I started using Elixir last year after being a long-time Python dev.

Apart from the pros of using a niche language as espoused in the OP write up, the downside I see can be the lack of community, 3rd party libraries and tools and lived experiences which could be discouraging.

[Borkdude]

I think Elixir falls into the same category of Clojure when it comes to "niche". However, my experience with Clojure is that the community is small but tight-knit: you can usually easily reach library authors in case there are issues and discuss things on Clojurians Slack. The libraries usually adhere to "don't break" like Clojure itself and when there isn't a library for a specific problem, you can drop down one layer to the host system where there is usually a library for everything (Java, browser, Node.js, ...). So although Clojure is fairly niche, you can use a wide array of mainstream libraries to solve problems.

[alienfunk]

My experience with Elixir has largely been the same, to be honest. I’ve managed to speak with lots of well known library authors just by messaging them on the elixir slack. The creators of the language and the dominant web framework, Jose Valim and Chris McCord respectively, are well known for popping in on threads, conversations, and GitHub issues all over the place.

Elixir libraries are also pleasantly backwards compatible in my experience (with the occasional exception to be sure). At my company the effort required to maintain currency has been 1/10 that of Ruby in my experience.

I frequently hear that elixir lacks the 3rd party library support of Ruby. If you use sheer quantity as the criteria, then definitely, but in the 6 years I’ve been using Elixir, this has interestingly never gotten in my way. I’ve always either been able to find a library or the problem simply isn’t gnarly enough to deserve a library. Maybe I just haven’t picked the right problems with which to experience this lack though :).

All that to say I think Elixir and Clojure are very similar in these regards!

[rainygold]

I chose Elixir over Clojure simply because the web development story is better (in my opinion) due to the community rallying around Phoenix. I preferred the Lispiness of Clojure but all you have over there is Fulcro and Luminus, the former is far, far too complicated and niche, while the latter is just curated libraries.

[Borkdude]

Check out biff, it's a new web framework.

[the_only_law]

> Can Elixir be termed a "niche" language?

Not nearly as much as Erlang apparently. I can’t ever bring it up without someone trying to drive the convo towards Elixir

[throwawayelixir]

Erlang is definitely more niche than elixir at this point. Too many well-known companies use elixir: discord, pagerduty, Weedmaps, Boston MBTA, apple, etc.