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Elixir is a fairly new but budding programming language that you can use for general programming purposes. It runs on a virtual machine known as Erlang. We’re not sure if we can suggest that you learn Elixir as a first language in your journey with programming languages because it is still very new and will make things very specific for you. Instead, go after the giants like Python or Java as your first languages. That being said, a good elixir course can help in your journey in many ways.
It is a Super Simple Language
If you are already proficient in other kind of programming languages but need one that you can use for general programming purpose, elixir is your best bet. Some of the best elixir tutorials you will find will also confirm the fact that elixir is awesome for use as a general programming language. It is Brilliant for Working Web Servers. Measuring their speed makes you use applications like Tsung which use Erlang. It is also great for use to develop chatting or messenger based apps.
Fault Tolerance
Ever heard of that painful phenomenon where the entire app or system crashes just because of one error in the code? Erlang is a virtual machine that has a fault tolerant system. This means that the system will still run, even if it comes across a couple of errors. Don’t get us wrong, it won’t fix those errors on its own, you still have to do it, but instead of the whole system getting screwed up, only that specific request with the faulty line(s) of code will show an error. This is arguably the best advantage of using Erlang.
In case you want to link all the requests in your system and you want everything to be perfect before the code runs, you can find on any good elixir tutorial how to link all the requests with each other. It is really flexible that way.
So where does Elixir come into the picture? We have mentioned before that Elixir works on Erlang and we have also talked about how simple it is to use, it is much simpler than raw Erlang just by the way. Combine that ease of use with fault tolerance and here you have a language with excellent potential.
Other Awesome Components
You can use Elixir to develop apps in metaprogramming. You can use other elixir tutorials to give you a detailed explanation on how to use metaprogramming in elixir and what kinds there are, but the main gist remains the same. Metaprogramming is great for reducing the chances of duplication in the system. So you can basically have the same code for different structural components without having them overlap. Using elixir, you can also combine a whole set of operations without making sub-variables for them all. This is a huge advantage for programmers as you greatly reduce the risk of messing up the sub-variables and keep your code from getting too mushed up.