
Elixir Wizards is an interview-format podcast, focused on engineers who use the Elixir programming language. Initially launched in early 2019, each season focuses on a specific topic or topics, with each interview focusing on the guest's experience and opinions on the topic. Elixir Wizards is hosted by Eric Oestrich and Sundi Myint of SmartLogic, a dev shop that’s been building custom software since 2005 and running Elixir applications in production since 2015. Learn more about how SmartLogic uses Phoenix and Elixir. (https://smartlogic.io/phoenix-and-elixir?utm_source=podcast)
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Chris McCord with a Deep Dive on Phoenix
Although it’s taken him four seasons to make an appearance, we are so glad to finally welcome Chris McCord, creator of the Phoenix framework, onto the show. While this season’s focus is on system and application architecture, today’s discussion deviates to focus on Phoenix. We get started by hearing more about Chris’s programming journey, all the way from TI-Basic to where he is now. After this, we dive into LiveView, the project Chris is currently focusing most of his energy on. We get into some of the incredible changes that have been made including live navigation, deep change tracking optimizations, and static asset tracking. Chris shares which of the changes he is most excited about, along with why he enjoys seeing LiveView being misused. We then look at some of the critiques of LiveView and Phoenix generally. Chris offers counter-arguments to the most common criticisms of the framework. He shares how the title of 'framework' can be a double-edged sword, as well as why he is hesitant to extract channels prematurely. We wrap the show up with a look into the future, hearing more about what’s on the horizon for Phoenix and where Chris hopes the Elixir community is headed. This conversation was well worth the four season-long wait, so be sure to tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: Why it took Chris four whole seasons to finally make an appearance on the show. Chris’s programming journey from T-Basic all the way to Java, HTML, and PHP. How a broken back landed Chris his first paid programming job. Learn more about Chris’s current project, LiveView, and some of the recent additions. Why the optimizations were the most interesting changes for Chris to make on LiveView. Some of the most interesting use cases Chris has seen of LiveView. How Chris plans to navigate laying LiveView out on a larger codebase. Chris’s take on stateful applications and why the platform is so important. The origins of the hilariously termed ‘dead view.’ Some of the most pertinent critiques of LiveView and Phoenix generally. Chris busts some of the invalid critiques of Phoenix. Why the community feedback on LiveWire has been so surprising to Chris. Phoenix 1.6 changes and when we can expect its release. Chris’s take on whether Elixir is likely to overthrow Rails in terms of popularity. The systemic blockers that create adoption friction of Elixir and Phoenix. Looking into the future — Chris’s goals for Phoenix and his hopes for the Elixir community. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Chris McCord — http://chrismccord.com/ Chris McCord on Twitter — https://twitter.com/chrismccord DockYard — https://dockyard.com/ Dave’s Site — https://www.davesite.com/ Hacking with PHP — http://www.hackingwithphp.com/ Phoenix LiveView — https://hexdocs.pm/phoenixliveview/Phoenix.LiveView.html Phoenix Phrenzy — https://groundstation.gigalixirapp.com/ Dashbit: An Upcoming Authentication Solution for Phoenix — https://dashbit.co/blog/a-new-authentication-solution-for-phoenix Aaron Renner on GitHub — https://github.com/aaronrenner/phxgenauth Phoenix Issues on GitHub — https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/issuesq=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+milestone%3Av2.0 Phoenix Fire Nest — https://github.com/phoenixframework/firenest Phoenix Pub/Sub — https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenixpubsub ElixirConf 2020— https://2020.elixirconf.com/ ElixirConf 2020 Speaker Proposals — https://2020.elixirconf.com/#cfp TI-83 Calculator — https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-83-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B00001N2QU Teach Yourself C in 21 Days — https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-21-Days-Sams/dp/0672310694 Rest Fest — https://www.restfest.org/ José Valim on Twitter — https://twitter.com/josevalim Jason Goldberger on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-goldberger-84237392/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ SmartLogic Jobs — https://smartlogic.workable.com/ Special Guest: Chris McCord.
Amos King on MUDs, Architecture, Domain-driven design, and Military Bases
Today’s guest is Amos King, Principal CEO at Binary Noggin, and host on the Elixir Outlaws and This Agile Life podcasts. This episode is centered around a casual conversation about everything from programming, the military, sarcasm, and puns to systems and application architecture, domain-driven design, and bitmasks. Amos shares with us how he got into programming, after wanting to be a doctor or an engineer first, and tells us how he met Famous Amos. We talk about spectrum analyzers, Elixir resources, and MUDs, as well as type-first design and Haskell. Amos gives us his takes on domain-driven design, API, booleans, and enums, and even roasts his co-host Chris Keithley a little. Don’t miss this episode for everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the legendary Amos King (and a whole lot more)! Key Points From This Episode: * Amos explains what Adkron means, which is his gaming and social media handle. * Where the name Elixir Outlaws for the podcast came from. * How Amos got into programming as a career, after wanting to be a surgeon and an engineer. * What Amos’s first opportunity as a programmer was, and how he met Wally Amos. * Amos explains what a spectrum analyzer is, based on his experience in the military. * Amos shares why Steve Bussey’s book, Real-Time Phoenix, is his favorite Elixir resource. * Eric and Amos talk about the MUD engine that they worked on together. * What systems and application architecture means to Amos and how it differs from design. * What type-first design (TFD) is and Amos’s opinion on it as a thought exercise. * Amos talks about Haskell programming and domain-driven design. * Relating domain-driven design to a car dealership to describe types and terminology. * Amos talks a bit about his company and what they do. * Justus, Eric, and Amos debate the term “architect” and what it actually means. * Amos shares his take on API architecture, booleans, enums, and bitmasks. * Amos gives his hot take on his co-host Chris Keithley. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Amos King on Twitter — https://twitter.com/adkron Elixir Outlaws Podcast — https://elixiroutlaws.com/ Wally Amos — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WallyAmos Windows 3.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows3.0 Real-Time Phoenix on Pragmatic Bookshelf — https://pragprog.com/book/sbsockets/real-time-phoenix Elixir School — https://elixirschool.com/en/ Elixir Inaction — https://twitter.com/gausby/status/986550202248187904 This Agile Life Podcast — https://www.thisagilelife.com/ Screen — https://screen.so/#/home Haskell Book — https://haskellbook.com/ Binary Noggin Website — https://binarynoggin.com/ Binary Noggin on Twitter — https://twitter.com/BinaryNoggin SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Justus Eapen on Twitter — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Eric Oestrich — https://oestrich.org/ Kalevala — https://github.com/oestrich/kalevala Eric Oestrich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich Eric Oestrich on GitHub — https://github.com/oestrich Special Guest: Amos King.
Sundi Myint on The Visual Side of Elixir, the History of Emojis, and Test- and Domain-Driven Architecture
Welcome to another episode of Elixir Wizards as we continue our journey into system and application architecture! Our featured guest today is Sundi Myint and she is here to share her journey with Elixir and her non-traditional path to programming. We hear about Sundi's interest in gaming, her role at Cava and a bit of the inspiration behind her amazing Instagram account! We discuss her first internship and how she found herself in the role quite suddenly before diving into the motivation behind her blog post on the history of emojis. Sundi did some serious research into this interesting subject and she shares some of the more technical aspects of the story with us on the show. We talk about architecture and both test and design-driven approaches. Sundi also explains her process and how mapping things out on a whiteboard has been her favored way to do things for some time. Andrea Leopardi then joins us for another edition of Pattern Matching with Todd! He answers Todd's questions about his home life, media favorites, future projects and more! Key Points From This Episode: Sundi's Instagram aesthetic and her love of food and photography. How Sundi got into programming and her first internship. Getting hired at Cava and an introduction to Elixir and the community. Video game programming and Sundi's thoughts on the possibility of pursuing this path. Sundi's first paid job out of college and the tech stack at the company. Thoughts on easily available learning resources and the power of Live View. Some background on Sundi's amazing blog post on the history of emojis. Understanding Unicode, how it works and its role in translation and interpretation. Sundi's perspectives on architecture and domain-driven design. Code design strategies, workflow and the idea and practice of test-driven code. Conversations with stakeholders and moving to the planning stage. How Sundi uses whiteboards to map out her work graphically and Elixir's part in this. Andrea's travels and some of the amazing locations he has visited for conferences. Home life and lifestyle in quarantine for Andrea in Italy. Alternative career paths and Andrea's other interests; balancing creativity and logic. Music, movies and television choices for Andrea. Exciting new projects on the horizon for Andrea; a book, HTTP and more! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Sundi Myint on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sundikhin Sundi Myint on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/sundikhin Cava — https://cava.com/ Hackers & Painters — https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-Computer/dp/1449389554 Lonestar Elixir — https://lonestarelixir.com/ Bruce Tate — https://codesync.global/speaker/bruce-tate/ EA — https://www.ea.com Groxio Learning — https://grox.io/training/elixir/home Live View — https://support.google.com/maps/thread/11554255?hl=en Build a real-time Twitter clone in 15 minutes with LiveView and Phoenix 1.5 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZvmYaFkNJI The History of Emojis Blog Post — https://engineering.upside.com/emojis-a-history-75d595bbe4a5?gi=6cd53698e5d Burgergate https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/30/16569346/burgergate-emoji-google-apple Joy of Coding — https://joyofcoding.org/ Test-driven development — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-drivendevelopment Mox — https://hexdocs.pm/mox/Mox.html Venmo — https://venmo.com/ Mint — https://www.mint.com/ Avengers — https://www.marvel.com/movies/avengers-endgame DC Elixir — https://www.meetup.com/DC-Elixir/ Todd Resudek — https://medium.com/@toddresudek Andrea Leopardi — https://andrealeopardi.com/ Brooklyn Zelenka — https://medium.com/@expede The Lord of Rings — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/franchise/lordoftherings Wes Anderson — https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/ Scott Pilgrim vs. The World — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/scottpilgrimsvstheworld Community — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/community The Office — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/theoffice Rick and Morty — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/rickand_morty Justus Eapen on Twitter — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Eric Oestrich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich Special Guests: Andrea Leopardi and Sundi Myint.
Dave Thomas on Learning How Things Work
Dave Thomas is recognized internationally as an expert who develops high-quality software–accurate and highly flexible systems. He helped write the now-famous Agile Manifesto, and regularly gives inspiring and controversial speeches on new ways of producing software. He is the author of six books, including the best selling The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master and Programming Ruby: A Pragmatic Programmer's Guide. In this episode, we discuss everything from learning computer science in an academic setting, test-driven development, and state to architecture, libraries, and what Dave loves about what he does. Dave talks about his students, both those who are passionate and those who are just going through the motions, as well as his own experience of being a student. He explains to us what he means when he said he doesn’t write unit tests at an Elixir conference in Austin recently, we talk about his favorite and most rewarding books, and Dave gives us a really unique answer to our architecture question. We discuss domain-driven design, microservice architectures, and Elixir libraries, and Dave shares why is so passionate about what he does. Tune in to hear some of Dave’s strong opinions on programming! Key Points From This Episode: The Coding Gnome and how it bridges the gap between learned and practical experience. Dave talks about being a lecturer at SMU and why students aren’t prepared for the real world. Why Dave stopped teaching Elixir at SMU. Students who study computer science for passion versus those who study it to get a job. Dave talks about his experience of studying computer science at university. The inspiring and controversial keynote addresses Dave has given at conferences. What it means when Dave said he doesn’t write unit tests and the projects he’s working on. The culture around test-driven development and writing tests when Dave was at university. Dave tells a story about writing the incoming telex switch for the UK. Why the first edition of Programming Ruby was Dave’s favorite book to write. Why The Pragmatic Programmer is the book Dave is most proud of. Dave isn’t currently writing a new book, so he can concentrate on pseudo-course material. Dave explains the process of developing a narrative arc when writing a technical book. What the state of a system is and how it is distinct from data. Dave describes why he believes architecture is a misunderstood and borrowed metaphor. Dave’s opinions on buzzwords like domain-driven design and microservice architectures. The status on The Component Library, as mentioned by Dave in his EMPEX 2018 keynote. Getting involved with publishing Elixir libraries and what his process looks like. How Dave likes to receive product specification when dealing with clients. What Dave loves about the programming industry. Why Dave doesn’t write Elixir anymore and why he became frustrated with it. Where Dave is going from here to how best to express what he wants. Final advice from Dave, not to abandon Elixir if it makes you happy. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Dave Thomas on Twitter – https://twitter.com/pragdave The Coding Gnome – https://pragdave.me/ The Coding Gnome Training — https://codestool.coding-gnome.com/ Agile Manifesto – https://agilemanifesto.org/ The Pragmatic Programmer – https://pragprog.com/book/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition Programming Ruby – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProgrammingRuby Robert Kowalski on Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RobertKowalski Dave Thomas on Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DaveThomas(programmer) Space-state representation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-spacerepresentation Christopher Alexander — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChristopherAlexander A Pattern Language — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APatternLanguage Dave Thomas Keynote at Empex NYC 2018 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U7cLUygMeI SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Justus Eapen on Twitter — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Eric Oestrich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich Special Guest: Dave Thomas.
Ben Marx on the Launch and Architecture of SubSpace
Joining us on the show for this episode is Ben Marx, author of Adopting Elixir and Principal Control Plane Engineer at the recently launched SubSpace! We continue our Season 4 journey into system and application architecture with Ben and he unpacks what he can about the somewhat still under wraps work at the new company. Ben is all about plain-spoken and easy to understand conversations on these topics, preferring to avoid highfalutin and confusing terms with multiple interpretations. He really drills down on his understanding of the fundamentals of his work and we also get to hear about his previous position at Bleacher Report. He unpacks the lessons he took away from the company, and the changes he witnessed while there. Ben explains how Elixir fits into the work at SubSpace and what a perfect fit it is for their low-latency service. We also spend a bit of time talking about life as an introverted programmer, attending conferences and meeting people, and remote work and family life during the pandemic. For all this and then some, tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: * Ben's exciting new position at SubSpace, and how the company reduces latency. * The increasing need for more reliable internet speeds during the pandemic. * Use of Elixir for SubSpace and how well it fits the needs of the company. * The engineering team at SubSpace and some of the basic system architecture. * Meeting people, giving talks and life at conferences as an introvert. * The meaning of architecture to Ben; more dynamic than static. * Differentiating between architecture and design; the abstract and reality. * The idea of domain-driven design what the concept means to Ben. * Placement of the authentication and authorization systems. * Ben's time working at Bleacher Report and the development of the company during his time there. * Thoughts on Kafka and its baffling name! * Ben's new role at SubSpace and major areas of learning for him so far. * Adapting to a new role during the work from home era; life under quarantine. * Project management and helpful processes for remote work in a new world. * Ideas for another book from Ben, his belief in Elixir and getting in contact! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Ben Marx — https://bgmarx.com/ SubSpace — https://www.subspace.com/ Ben Marx on Twitter — https://twitter.com/bgmarx Adopting Elixir — https://www.amazon.com/Adopting-Elixir-Production-Ben-Marx/dp/1680502522 Bleacher Report — https://bleacherreport.com/ Subspace article at the Wall Street Journal — https://www.wsj.com/articles/subspace-launches-publicly-offering-fast-internet-for-gaming-companies-11584961201 Subspace article at VentureBeat — https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/03/the-deanbeat-subspace-emerges-from-stealth-with-26-million-to-fix-internet-bottlenecks-for-games-and-entertainment/ Kafka — https://kafka.apache.org/coding-guide Franz Kafka — https://www.biography.com/writer/franz-kafka Max Brod — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Max-Brod Sophie DeBenedetto — http://sophiedebenedetto.nyc/ Justus Eapen on Twitter — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Eric Oestrich — https://oestrich.org/ Eric Oestrich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich Eric Oestrich on GitHub — https://github.com/oestrich Special Guest: Ben Marx.
Pattern Matching - Johanna Larsson
A special episode of Elixir Wizards highlighting Pattern Matching with Todd - a short format interview where our friend, Todd Resudek, asks different guests the same five questions. This week Todd spoke with Johanna Larsson. Johanna is active on the Elixir scene and is currently working as a Software Engineer at Duffel. Key Points From This Episode: * Living in Malmo, Sweden. * Johanna's love of languages. * The complexities of written Japanese. * How Johanna uses music to set the soundtrack to her work. * Todd missing the boat on a cinematic and cultural masterpiece. * Integrating and improving upon the hex diff project. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Johanna Larsson on GitHub - https://github.com/joladev Johanna Larsson on Twitter - https://twitter.com/joladev Todd Resudek on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sprsmpl SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Special Guest: Johanna Larsson.
Steve Bussey on Real-Time Applications
Real-time applications come with real challenges—persistent connections, multi-server deployment, and strict performance requirements are just a few. Our guest today is Steve Bussey, a software architect at SalesLoft and author of the new book, Real-Time Phoenix: Build Highly Scalable Systems with Channels. In this episode, Steve shares with us what he has written on real-time Elixir applications and how he has led development in the field. We discuss how Steve found Elixir, what system and application architecture means to him, and what he considers the differences between architecting and designing a system. Steve gives us his opinions on domain-driven design, umbrella apps, and Phoenix LiveView, and shares some of his personal processes when working on new real-time features, as well as what he believes are the toughest parts of developing and rolling out real-time applications. Finally, we talk about testing, security, and performance issues, and Steve sells us on his book. Tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: What Steve’s favorite pair of shoes is and how he got into sneakers. Where Steve is from and how long he has been doing programming. What system and application architecture means to Steve. The difference between architecting and designing a system. Steve’s opinions on domain-driven design. Eric’s opinion on umbrella apps and Steve’s response. Where Steve starts when he works on a new real-time feature. Steve’s personal and professional pre-code design processes. The toughest parts of developing and rolling out real-time applications. Testing real-time features and Steve’s thoughts on Phoenix LiveView. How Steve incorporates security into the architecture when designing applications. Multi-tenant applications and how Steve deals with performance issues. Deployment considerations when going into production with a real-time application. Steve sells us on his book and gives his final plugs and asks for the audience. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Steve Bussey on Twitter – https://twitter.com/YOOOODAAAA Steven Bussey’s Website – https://stevenbussey.com/ Real-Time Phoenix on Pragmatic Bookshelf – https://pragprog.com/book/sbsockets/real-time-phoenix SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Justus Eapen on Twitter — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Eric Oestrich — https://oestrich.org/ Eric Oestrich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich Eric Oestrich on GitHub — https://github.com/oestrich Special Guest: Steve Bussey.
Mohd Maqbool Alam on System and Application Architecture
Today’s guest is Mohd Maqbool Alam, a software developer and Elixir fan from Delhi. He enjoys learning about programming language theory, distributed systems, Cloud Native technologies, and open source. As he is working towards building an Elixir community in Delhi, we caught up with him to find out how he came to be part of the Elixir world, and what drew him to programming in the first place. We also discuss Maqbool’s favorite Elixir resources and how Elixir has changed the way he thinks about architecture applications, as well as his opinions on microservices, APIs, and static typing. We talk about the real-world consequences of programming, using Neil Ferguson’s pandemic simulation model as an example, and Maqbool shares his favorite RPC (when we actually meant to ask him his favorite RFC)! The episode concludes with Pattern Matching with Todd. In this edition, he discusses Kubernetes and Beam with Principal Software Architect Cory O’Daniel. Key Points From This Episode: Maqbool tells us a bit about himself and how he came to be part of the Elixir community. What enticed Maqbool to programming. Maqbool’s favorite resources from Elixir. How Elixir has changed the way Maqbool thinks about architecting applications. Maqbool’s ‘aha’ moment in distributed programming and how he got into pattern matching. Phoenix Live Dashboard and why Maqbool and the team are excited about it. How Maqbool approaches the design process when building an application from scratch. The tools and methods Maqbool uses when designing information architecture and APIs. Maqbool’s opinions on microservices, Kubernetes, and Amazon Lambda. Protocols and non-standard protocols. Neil Ferguson’s pandemic simulation model using undocumented C-code. How we should think about the real world consequences of high-stakes programming. Maqbool’s opinion on static typing. Macbool’s favorite RPC and RFC. Pattern Matching with Todd Resudek, discussing Kubernetes and Beam with Cory O’Daniel. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Justus Eapen on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/justuseapen/ Justus Eapen on Twitter — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Eric Oestrich — https://oestrich.org/ Eric Oestrich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich Eric Oestrich on GitHub — https://github.com/oestrich Mohd Maqbool Alam on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Maqboolism Elixir Forum – https://elixirforum.com/ Elixir in Action – https://www.amazon.com/Elixir-Action-Sa%C5%A1a-Juri-cacute/dp/161729201X Phoenix Live Dashboard – https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenixlivedashboard Absinthe – https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe Kubeless – https://kubeless.io/ Kubernetes — https://kubernetes.io/ Amazon Lambda – https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/ Groxio – https://grox.io/ Todd Resudek on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sprsmpl Cory O’Daniel on Twitter – https://twitter.com/coryodaniel Ziggy O’Doodle on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ziggy.odoodle/ SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Special Guests: Cory O'Daniel and Mohd Maqbool Alam.
Season Four Launchisode
As our first trilogy comes to a close, and we embark on the next one, we’re doing what all great trilogies do: Upending everything that made the initial one great and starting afresh. We have taken on board some excellent listener feedback to keep this the highest quality Elixir related podcast. So, for this launchisode, rather than doing a trailer, we are diving in headfirst with a full episode on system and application architecture, this season’s theme, with Justus Eapen, Dan Ivovich, and Eric Oestrich. We kick off the show by getting to know Dan and Eric a bit better. This season, as per listener requests, we will spend more time on our guests' personal lives. We learn about Dan and Eric’s time at SmartLogic, their experience working with Elixir, and their approaches to learning it. From there, we move onto tackling clients’ projects. We discuss the importance of letting ideas flow free as well as how to break projects down into manageable sized segments to work on. Following this, we touch on flexible architecture. As the world changes, sometimes at a pace faster than we anticipate, it is more important than ever to design systems that we can iterate on. Then, we discuss the future of applications and architecture and the exciting possibilities in-store. The show rounds off with our new segment, Pattern Matching with Todd, where our friend Todd Resudek gets to know someone in the community a bit better. Today, he talks with Connor Rigby of Binary Noggin, finding out more about his programing journey, his favorite music and movies, and his WiFi meshing project. We're so excited for this season, and we hope you join us on the journey. Tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: Dan’s background and how he came to be Director of Development Operations. How Eric started at SmartLogic and what his journey at the company has been like. Learn what convinced Dan to go all-in on Elixir and make the move from Rails Some of the educational materials and tools Dan and Eric used to learn Elixir. Dan’s preferred style of design and why he enjoys TDD. Why we think that Cucumber falls short and chose to move away from it. Find out what we think domain-driven design is. How Dan and Eric approach deconstructing clients’ projects. Pre-coding: Why it’s best to do free-form planning, with no constraints. Insights into the broad-reaching term of ‘API’ and what we mean by it. SOAP and REST APIs: What they are and the differences between them. How Dan, Eric, and Justus’s thinking about designing and application architecture has evolved. Object-oriented programming versus functional: Our take on the age-old debate. Is this finally the year that we get to kill micro-services? The relationship between team size and micro-services and some other constraints. What the future has in store for applications and architecting. Pattern-matching with Todd: Five questions to get to know Connor Rigby a bit better. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Justus Eapen on Twitter — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Dan Ivovich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/danivovich Eric Oestrich on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich Kalevala on GitHub — https://github.com/oestrich/kalevala Valve — https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/ Ecto — https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.html Phoenix Elixir books — https://pragprog.com/book/phoenix14/programming-phoenix-1-4 Ruby on Rails — https://rubyonrails.org/ Designing for Scalability with Erlang — http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024149.do Mike Amundsen on O’Reily Media — https://www.oreilly.com/pub/au/1192 Designing Elixir Systems With OTP — https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Elixir-Systems-OTP-Self-healing/dp/1680506617 Cucumber — https://cucumber.io/ Visual Studio Code — https://code.visualstudio.com/ SOAP vs REST APIs — https://www.soapui.org/learn/api/soap-vs-rest-api/ RESTFest — https://www.restfest.org/ ExVenture — https://exventure.org/ Kubernetes — https://kubernetes.io/ Phoenix — https://phoenixframework.org/ Nerves Project — https://www.nerves-project.org/ Todd Resudek on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sprsmpl Binary Noggin — https://binarynoggin.com/ Connor Rigby on GitHub — https://github.com/ConnorRigby The Big Lebowski — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/ Aesop Rock on Twitter — https://twitter.com/AesopRockWins All That Remains on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ATRhq Korn — https://www.kornofficial.com/ Eric Meadows-Jönsson on Twitter — https://twitter.com/emjii Donnie Darko — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246578/ Richard Kelly — https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0446819/ Frank Hunleth on Twitter — https://twitter.com/fhunleth SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Special Guests: Connor Rigby and Dan Ivovich.
Betweenisode Part 2! Featuring Amos King, Chris Keathley, Anna Neyzberg, Paul Schoenfelder, Sophie DeBenedetto, Meryl Dakin, and Dave Thomas
Welcome back to part two of our betweenisode! Everybody is working remotely now including ourselves, so today we continue the catch ups we were having with a number of longstanding buddies and chat about life after social distancing! The show is a back-to-back of four different conversations, the first being with Amos King, Chris Keathley, and Anna Neyzberg from Elixir Outlaws. After that we talk to Paul Schoenfelder, before getting on the line with Sophie DeBenedetto and Meryl Dakin. Last but not least we catch up with Dave Thomas. Our four conversations cover the same broad themes, and we mostly share our thoughts about what is happening in the world right now, how we are coping with working remotely, and what particular projects have been keeping us busy. Our guests share varying perspectives about what it means that we are restructuring the way we do things. We talk about how even if you worked remotely before, things feel different now, and we also consider the extra burdens of being a remote software developer. Other topics include the line between complaints and constructive criticism, wild animals roaming the streets, and the general atmosphere in our different locations. From a tech point of view, we touch on IoT development, various GitHub projects to get involved with, why students aren’t learning how to program properly anymore, and a lot more. Get it all here and make sure you stay tuned for episode one of season four! Key Points From This Episode: Scaling up the NFL Draft website for remote screening. Home life and side projects in the quarantine: Mogde Podge, a baby, and game development. Shameless plugs from everybody: Binary Noggin, ElixirBridge, and Finch. Isolation, low supplies and trying to stay positive at present. Imagining roaming wild animals now that humans are in quarantine. Advice from Paul who works at home for surviving social distancing. What Paul is doing for Ockam to secure IoT devices. The danger of starting hack vulnerable tech companies. A plug from Paul to get involved with Lumen. Nature taking over; Meryl and Sophie’s experiences in Brooklyn and Westchester right now. Working from home versus working from home due to a global crisis. Domestic squabbles over bandwidth between Meryl and her software developer brother. Lessons learned to stay sane during quarantine: getting dressed. Extra tasks remote developers are having to do remotely; becoming project managers. The difference between complaints and legitimate critiques of work systems. Dave’s amazing remote communications setup 40 miles north of Dallas. The situation where Dave is with regard to coronavirus and freedom. How COBOL has not become too broad despite not using libraries. The history of programming languages that Dave teaches. That PDP-11 runs better emulated in Javascript than in its original hardware. A drawback of modern development: not understanding hardware. How Dave is digitizing his SMU courses due to teaching them online at present. All the effort Dave puts into grading his students’ exercises. Issues that coding is not taught rigorously enough; students can’t ‘program’. How well the human race is doing to mobilize en masse right now. Whether tech caused the crisis and humanity could manage this crisis 100 years ago. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Eric Oestrich — https://oestrich.org/ Justus Eapen — https://www.linkedin.com/in/justuseapen/ Amos King — https://www.linkedin.com/in/amosking/ Chris Keathley — https://keathley.io/ Anna Neyzberg — https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-neyzberg-93545316/ Elixir Outlaws — https://elixiroutlaws.com/ NFL Draft — https://www.nfl.com/draft/home Modge Podge — https://www.amazon.com/Mod-Podge-Waterbase-16-Ounce-CS11302/dp/B001IKES5O Star Trek — https://intl.startrek.com/ Sublime — https://www.sublimetext.com/ VSCode — https://code.visualstudio.com/ Binary Noggin — https://binarynoggin.com/ Connor Rigby — https://binarynoggin.com/author/connor/ ElixirBridge — http://elixirbridge.org/ Nico Piderman — https://github.com/sneako Quinn Wilton — https://github.com/QuinnWilton Jose Valim — https://github.com/josevalim Finch Library— https://github.com/keathley/finch Paul Schoenfelder — https://www.linkedin.com/in/gotbones/ Ockam — https://www.ockam.io/ Lumen — https://github.com/lumen/lumen Timex — https://github.com/bitwalker/timex Sophie DeBenedetto — https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiedebenedetto/ Meryl Dakin — https://github.com/meryldakin Flatiron — https://flatironschool.com/ Sophie DeBenedetto’s GitHub Post — https://www.thegreatcodeadventure.com/my-long-distance-relationship-with-github/ Elixir School — https://elixirschool.com/en/ Meryl Dakin’s Watch if Your Dare Episode — https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/watch-if-you-dare/e/68798094?autoplay=true Luigi’s Mansion — https://www.nintendo.co.za/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Luigi-s-Mansion-3-1437312.html Dave Thomas — https://pragdave.me/ COBOL — https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cobol/index.htm PD-11 — https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Electronic/PDP-11.html SMU — https://www.smu.edu/lyle Elixir Wizards Podcast — https://podcast.smartlogic.io SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Special Guests: Amos King, Anna Neyzberg, Chris Keathley, Dave Thomas, Meryl Dakin, Paul Schoenfelder, and Sophie DeBenedetto.
Betweenisode Part 1: Saša Jurić, Bruce and Maggie Tate, James Edward Gray II, Jim and Chris Freeze, and Frank Hunleth
The world has changed so much since the end of season 3, that we thought we’d put together a special Betweenisode to tide you over until Season 4 launches. In this episode, we talk to several friends and respected members of the Elixir community, about how they’re coping and tips they have for retaining some normalcy in your life if you’re suddenly having to work from home. Our first guest, Saša Jurić, of Very Big Things, and author of the unrivaled Elixir in Action, has had the privilege of working from home for several years. He shares the importance of having a routine, connecting with people, and why you should get out of your pajamas and into some real clothes when you work. He also shares what it’s been like in his home city of Zagreb, and how previous devastating events have in some way prepared him for what’s currently happening. Bruce and Maggie Tate of Groxio, an educational platform to learn languages, also join us. Maggie shares more on her culinary adventures, and the importance of having a definite start and finish time to your day. Bruce talks about some of the professional projects he’s working on, and why he believes it’s crucial to tackle difficult technical skills outside of developing. Other guests include James Edward Gray II, who shares more about the incredible way he and his daughter have been bonding, Jim Freeze, founder of ElixirConf, and his son Chris, who share some of the benefits of working from home, and show us how to see the silver lining during this difficult time, and Frank Hunleth, of Nerves Project, who talks about what he’s up to. There have certainly been more changes in the world than we could have anticipated, so it was wonderful to catch up and see how people in our community have been coping. Be sure to tune in today! Key Points From This Episode: Learn what’s happening in Saša’s home city, Zagreb, and what he’s doing to keep busy. Saša’s advice for coping during the pandemic and preventing information overload. The transition to remote work in Saša’s company and the impacts it’s had on workload. How Saša started working remotely and the main lessons he has learned from doing it. What Saša believes the future of virtual events and conferences will be. Find out how Bruce and Maggie are dealing with these strange times. Groxio’s mission in terms of learning and Bruce and Maggie’s tip for working from home. Current projects that Bruce and Maggie are working on both at Groxio and personally. What’s in the pipeline with Groxio’s Elixir material and Bruce and Maggie’s plugs. How James is holding up and his take on the COBOL debacle. Find out what motivated James to transition from Ruby to Elixir and what it’s been like. James’s experience working from home and tips for people who are new to it. Specific versus general solutions: The difference and how James thinks we can tackle this. Hear James’s ExVenture plug, which is Eric’s project. Jim’s and Chris’s experience of the lockdown and the silver linings that have come from it Find out Jim and Chris’s necessities for working from home and being productive. Jim’s plans for ElixirConf for this year and 2021, and Chris and Jim’s final plug. Frank’s tips for working from home and his product plugs. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Saša Jurić on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sasajuric Saša Jurić on LinkedIn — https://hr.linkedin.com/in/sa%C5%A1a-juri%C4%87-21b23186 Erlangelist — https://www.theerlangelist.com/ Very Big Things — https://verybigthings.com/ Elixir in Action — https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action-second-edition Bruce Tate — https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-tate-a836b Bruce Tate on Twitter — https://twitter.com/redrapids Maggie Tate on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-tate-230234171 Groxio — https://grox.io/ Programmer Passport — https://elixirforum.com/t/programmer-passport-grox-io-pragprog/28253 Lonestar Elixir — https://lonestarelixir.com/ James Edward Gray II — https://twitter.com/JEG2 COBOL — https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cobol/index.htm Gray Inc — http://graysoftinc.com/ Programming Erlang — https://pragprog.com/book/jaerlang2/programming-erlang Nathan Long — https://twitter.com/sleeplessgeek POV-Ray — http://www.povray.org/ Elixir Wizards S02 Eric on ExVenture — https://podcast.smartlogic.io/season-two-oestrich Jesse Link — http://www.jesselink.com/ Jim Freeze on Twitter— https://twitter.com/jimfreeze ElixirConf — https://elixirconf.com/2020 Chris Freeze on Twitter— https://twitter.com/chrisfreeze_ Tesla Car Lot — https://teslacarlot.com/ David Antaramian — https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidantaramian/ PepsiCo — https://www.pepsico.com/ Nerves Project — https://www.nerves-project.org/ Frank Hunleth on Twitter — https://twitter.com/fhunleth SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Special Guests: Bruce Tate, Chris Freeze, Dr. Jim Freeze, Frank Hunleth, James Gray, Maggie Tate, and Saša Jurić.
Season Three Wrap and Remote Work Tips
In this episode, we take a look into the current contexts and home lives many of us find ourselves in today, offering top tips for working remotely from home during these challenging times. The lockdowns have caused many of us to reflect. To reflect on our lives, our work, what we’re grateful for, and in this case, our epic last season of Elixir Wizards! Here, we take you through the highlights, the lowlights, our biggest lessons, our juiciest debates, and what you can expect for Season 4 – in sickness and in health. Stay safe, listen, and enjoy! Key Points from This Episode: The importance of demarcating your workspace, especially when the kids are home! Always put your pants on: Why sticking to your morning schedule helps productivity. Ways to eliminate the potential for distraction when working from home. How working from home is enabling programmers to see one another’s human side. Taking a break from conferences, cognition, and learning how to birth a baby Oestrich. Third dimensions and entering the tangential learning plane with Brooklyn Zelenka. The Surprise Toddcast: Why the improvised episode was a hit. What it was like interviewing entrepreneurial couple, Bruce & Maggie Tate. Remember the time the father and son roasted each other on the podcast mic? Why your podcast audience wants to know your guests on a more personal level. A recap of the numbers from Season 1-3 and the 40,000+ Elixir Wizards downloads. A sneak peek into the new Elixir Wizards theme for the upcoming Season 4. Lib versus Web and other essential tips for the lazy Phoenix users out there. Why we need a whole season on application architecture and one-letter module names. The debate sparked by the disagreement between Chris Keathley and Brooklyn Zelenka. Hackers, painters, Paul Graham, and the argument made in favor of dynamic typing. Find out more about Sophie and Meryl’s epic takeover of Elixir Wizards! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Eric Oestrich — https://twitter.com/ericoestrich?lang=en Justus Eapen — https://twitter.com/justuseapen Brooklyn Zelenka on Witchcraft — https://podcast.smartlogic.io/season-two-zelenka Brooklyn Zelenka — https://twitter.com/expede?lang=en Bruce and Maggie Tate from Groxio on Training — https://podcast.smartlogic.io/s3e8-groxio Saša Jurić — https://twitter.com/sasajuric Bonus Toddcast & Lonestar Preview — https://podcast.smartlogic.io/s3e14-bonus-toddcast-and-lonestar-preview The Lonestar Lunchisode — https://podcast.smartlogic.io/s3-lonestar-lunchisode-2020 Dave Thomas — https://www.davethomas.net/talks_index.html Bonus Episode: Outlaws and The Wizards — https://podcast.smartlogic.io/s3-bonus-outlaws-and-wizards Chris Keathley — https://twitter.com/ChrisKeathley Paul Graham — http://www.paulgraham.com/ Sean Lewis from Divvy on Performance, Hiring and Training — https://podcast.smartlogic.io/s3e12-divvy Devin C. Estes — https://twitter.com/devoncestes?lang=en Muzak — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devonestes/muzak-a-mutation-testing-library-for-elixir-and-erlang Special Guest: Todd Resudek.
Sophie and Meryl Takeover: Sean Callan and Steven Nunez on Elixir Education
Welcome to another extra special episode of Elixir Wizards! We have guest hosts today, Meryl Dakin of Frame.io and Sophie DeBenedetto of Github, and they welcome Steven Nunez, Staff Engineer at the Flatiron School, and Sean Callan, creator of Elixir School, to the show. Where some would see the fact that Elixir doesn’t have a ton of readily available answers out there as a restriction to mastering the language, our guests argue that this is the best educational environment. Writing about challenges and teaching others how you overcame them are some of the best ways to learn. We also discuss concurrency and other contrasts with prominent languages. Our guests weigh in on dealing with students and how far enthusiasm and openness can go in helping inspire other minds. Steven stresses the need for greater resources, especially at a beginner level, as this will lower the barrier to entry for new programmers and ultimately benefit the entire Elixir community. Key Points From This Episode: An introduction to Sean and Steven, their work and experience with Elixir. Work and professional horoscopes for the panel of today's podcast! The accidental path that led Sean to Elixir and the translations that affirmed his work. The use of writing and blogging in your own education; teaching is learning twice! Steven's early attraction to Elixir and the obsession and evangelism that followed. Concurrency visibility and differences between Elixir and other languages. Different tracks for learning; coming into Elixir as a beginner or as someone with experience. The evolution of thought around education and things that have changed at Elixir School. Learning that includes reasons why; you don't know what you don't know! Knowing your students and keeping them excited to maintain a passion for learning. Growing confidence and the benefits of great resources for the spread of increasing skills. Scratching your own itch; write the educational information that you cannot find yourself. Our guest's Elixir wish lists; more learning opportunities, widespread adoption and beginner-friendly content. Requests about Elixir from our guests, a few plugs and how to connect with them! Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Sophie DeBenedetto — https://twitter.com/smdebenedetto Meryl Dakin — https://twitter.com/meryldakin Steven Nunez — https://twitter.com/stevennunez Sean Callan — https://twitter.com/doomspork System 76 — https://system76.com/ Flatiron — https://flatironschool.com/ Elixir School — https://elixirschool.com GitHub — https://github.com/ Erlang — https://www.erlang.org/ Phoenix — https://www.phoenixframework.org/ Kubernetes — https://kubernetes.io/ The Developer's Guide to Content Creation — https://www.developersguidetocontent.com/ Stephanie Morillo — https://www.stephaniemorillo.co/ Elixir and The Beam: How Concurrency Really Works https://www.thegreatcodeadventure.com/elixir-and-the-beam-how-concurrency-really-works/ Special Guests: Sean Callan and Steven Nunez.
Saša Jurić on Training
Saša Jurić is a household name in the Elixir and Erlang space and we are so glad to finally welcome him on to the show today! Author of Elixir in Action, Saša is here to discuss training and his thoughts on getting a team up to speed with regards to testing and beyond. We hear from our guest about his discovery of Elixir, his uncharacteristic early adoption of the language, and why he chose it. From there, Saša talks a bit about his book, the opportunity that arose for him to write it after Manning approached him and how he views its place among other prominent pieces of literature on the subject. We discuss early steps in the process of learning Elixir for new programmers and old, and Saša weighs in on when it might be a good idea to put in the effort. We also get to hear about very big things, where Saša works and the central work and services of the agency. The last part of our conversation is spent on more technical aspects of Saša's work, his approach to coding in general and then approaches to testing and the training side of this. Join us today for this great conversation! Key Points From This Episode: Saša's discovery of Elixir and his first experiences of the language. A lucky opportunity to write a book that presented itself to Saša! The complementary nature of Elixir in Action; reading it in conjunction with other books. Ideas on how to introduce the concepts of Elixir to new programmers and the unfamiliar. The effort needed in order to understand and adopt the new paradigm of Elixir. Saša's work at very big things and the services that the agency offers. The most useful idioms that Saša uses and the modes of operation at that agency. Saša's use of Dialyzer for debugging despite its imperfections. The exploratory nature of good coding and finding solutions as you go. Helper libraries and comparing functions from Saša's own one! Training for unit, feature and integration testing; Saša's approach for his team. Differentiating between the different types of testing and the importance of naming. Clarifying Saša's philosophy on testing and his understanding of the term 'unit'. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: SmartLogic — https://smartlogic.io/ Saša Jurić on Twitter — https://twitter.com/sasajuric The Erlangerist — https://www.theerlangelist.com/ Elixir in Action — https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action-second-edition?query=sa%C5%A1a - use special code podexwizards20 for 40% off your purchase at Manning Publications! Michael Stevens — https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstephens2 Manning — https://www.manning.com/ Programming Elixir — https://pragprog.com/book/elixir16/programming-elixir-1-6 Learn Functional Programming with Elixir — https://pragprog.com/book/cdc-elixir/learn-functional-programming-with-elixir very big things — https://verybigthings.com/ Dialyzer — https://hexdocs.pm/dialyzex/Mix.Tasks.Dialyzer.html Hackers & Painters — http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596006624.do Paul Graham — http://www.paulgraham.com/ Justin Searls Blog - https://blog.testdouble.com/ Marie Kondo — https://konmari.com/ Special Guest: Saša Jurić.
Bonus Episode: Outlaws and Wizards
Elixir Outlaws invited us to join them for a special crossover episode, recorded live at Lonestar Elixir 2020. Join us for a conversation around fun and learning in development, highlights from day one of the conference, remembering Joe Armstrong, and more. Guests / Hosts Justus Eapen @justuseapen (https://twitter.com/justuseapen) Anna Neyzberg @ANeyzb (https://twitter.com/ANeyzb) Amos King @adkron (https://twitter.com/Adkron) Bruce Tate @redrapids (https://twitter.com/redrapids) Susumu Yamazaki @zacky1972 (https://twitter.com/zacky1972) Melvin Cedeno @TheCraftedGem (https://twitter.com/TheCraftedGem) Tim Mecklem @tim_mecklem (https://twitter.com/tim_mecklem) Elixir Outlaws https://elixiroutlaws.com/ Lonestar Elixir https://lonestarelixir.com/ Special Guests: Amos King, Anna Neyzberg, Bruce Tate, Chris Keathley, Melvin Cedeno, Susumu Yamazaki, and Tim Mecklem.