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It's not a secret that Programmers like a great holy war. The [echos of passionate programmers] shouting with their banners high will live on Stack Overflow for eternity, or at least [archive.org].

[The editor wars] rage on. Like other holy wars, object-oriented vs. functional programming is an ongoing saga. Most programmers use functional programming while considering themselves object-oriented programmers. Many languages have incorporated object-oriented and functional programming language paradigms.

I've enjoyed using the functional features of C# and dabbled a bit with F#. I've never dove headfirst into a functional language like Elixir, until now. I picked it up because I like [The Pragmatic Programmer book] and Dave Thomas as an author. I'm also interested in being able to do [concurrent programming with less hassle].

## Workflow

My workflow is a split window with the book and my IDE side by side on my MacBook. I'm trying things out as the material progresses and am running through the exercises.

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## Programming Elixir

As I traverse [the Programming Elixir book], I feel like I'm learning regular expressions. These terse expressions are power-packed; look at this beauty.

```elixir
# The long way
add_one = fn (n) -> n + 1 end
IO.puts add_one.(1)
# The short way
add_one = &(&1 + 1)
IO.puts add_one.(1)
```

Building quick little inline functions will take little effort. It's a bit cryptic for my tastes, but this is good if you're doing quick and dirty code for a single task.

Look at that; with a few regular expressions and concise syntax, this code returns true.

```elixir
match_end = & ~r/.*#{&1}$/
IO.puts "cat" =~ match_end.("t")
```

This code boggles my mind. I can have a set of regex libraries that are named appropriately. I can chain those expressions; what?!

I've convinced myself that learning Elixir is worth the investment.

## Learning Elixir - Beyond the Basics

- **Books**
  - [Programming Elixir by Dave Thomas]
  - [Elixir for Programmers by Dave Thomas]
- **Visual Studio Code Extensions**
  - [vscode-elixir] ( Syntax Highlighting, Intellisense)
  - [Elixir Formatter] ( Code formatting )
  - [Code Runner] ( Select and run code in your editor )

## Related Content

- [Learn Elixir by Creating a Command Line Application]
- [Exercism.com]

[archive.org]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://stackoverflow.com/
[elixir]: https://elixir-lang.org/
[echos of passionate programmers]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2078978/functional-programming-vs-object-oriented-programming
[the editor wars]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor_war
[the pragmatic programmer book]: https://amzn.to/3dOFZYs
[concurrent programming with hassle]: https://elixirschool.com/en/lessons/advanced/concurrency/
[the programming elixir book]: https://amzn.to/345btot
[programming elixir by dave thomas]: https://amzn.to/345btot
[elixir for programmers by dave thomas]: https://codestool.coding-gnome.com/courses/elixir-for-programmers
[vscode-elixir]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mjmcloug.vscode-elixir
[elixir formatter]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=saratravi.elixir-formatter
[code runner]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=formulahendry.code-runner
[learn elixir by creating a command line application]: https://jorin.me/learn-elixir-by-creating-a-command-line-application/
[exercism.com]: https://exercism.org/tracks/elixir