In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Charles Suggs sits down with Chris Grainger, co-founder and CTO of Amplified and creator of the Explorer library. Chris explains how Explorer brings the familiar data-frame workflows of R’s dplyr and Python’s pandas into the Elixir world. We explore (pun intended!) how Explorer integrates with Ecto, Nx, and LiveView to build end-to-end data pipelines without leaving the BEAM, and how features like lazy evaluation and distributed frames let you tackle large datasets.

Whether you’re generating reports or driving interactive charts in LiveView, Explorer makes tabular data accessible to every Elixir developer. We wrap up by looking ahead to SQL-style backends, ADBC connectivity, and other features on the Explorer roadmap.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• dplyr- and pandas-inspired data manipulation in Elixir
• Polars integration via Rust NIFs for blazing performance
• Immutable data frames and BEAM-friendly concurrency
• Lazy evaluation to work with arbitrarily large tables
• Distributed data-frame support for multi-node processing
• Seamless integration with Ecto schemas and queries
• Zero-copy interoperability between Explorer and Nx tensors
• Apache Arrow and ADBC protocols for cross-language I/O
• Exploring SQL-style backends for remote query execution
• Building interactive dashboards and charts in LiveView
• Consolidating ETL workflows into a single Elixir API
• Streaming data pipelines for memory-efficient processing
• Tidy data principles and behavior-based API design
• Real-world use cases: report generation, patent analysis, and more
• Future roadmap: new backends, query optimizations, and community plugins

Links mentioned:

https://hexdocs.pm/explorer/Explorer.html
https://www.amplified.ai/
https://www.r-project.org/
https://vita.had.co.nz/papers/tidy-data.pdf
https://www.tidyverse.org/
https://www.python.org/
https://dplyr.tidyverse.org/
https://go.dev/
https://hexdocs.pm/nx/Nx.html
https://github.com/pola-rs/polars
https://github.com/rusterlium/rustler
https://www.rust-lang.org/
https://www.postgresql.org/
https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.html
https://www.elastic.co/elasticsearch
https://arrow.apache.org/
Chris Grainger & Chris McCord Keynote ElixirConf 2024: https://youtu.be/4qoHPh0obv0
https://dbplyr.tidyverse.org/
https://spark.posit.co/
https://hexdocs.pm/pythonx/Pythonx.html
https://hexdocs.pm/vega_lite/VegaLite.html
10 Minutes to Explorer: https://hexdocs.pm/explorer/exploring_explorer.html
https://github.com/elixir-nx/scholar
https://scikit-learn.org/stable/
https://github.com/cigrainger
https://erlef.org/slack-invite/erlef
https://bsky.app/profile/cigrainger.bsky.social
https://github.com/cigrainger

In this episode of Elixir Wizards, Dan Ivovich and Charles Suggs sit down with Norbert “NobbZ” Melzer to discuss how Nix enables reproducible builds, consistent development environments, and reliable deployments for Elixir projects.

Norbert shares his journey from Ruby to Elixir, contrasts Nix with NixOS, and walks us through flakes, nix-shell workflows, sandboxed builds, and rollback capabilities. Along the way, we cover real-world tips for managing Hex authentication, integrating Nix into CI/CD, wrapping Mix releases in Docker, and avoiding common pitfalls, such as flake performance traps.

Whether you’re spinning up your first dev shell or rolling out a production release on NixOS, you’ll come away with a clear, gradual adoption path and pointers to the community mentors and resources that can help you succeed.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• Reproducible, sandboxed builds vs. traditional package managers
• Nix flakes for locked dependency graphs and version pinning
• nix-shell: creating consistent development environments across teams
• Rollback and immutable deployment strategies with Nix/NixOS
• Integrating Nix with the Elixir toolchain: Hex, Mix, and CI/CD pipelines
• Flakes vs. standard shells: when and how to transition
• Handling private Hex repositories and authentication in Nix
• Cross-platform support (macOS/Darwin, Linux variants)
• Channels, overlays, and overrides for customizing builds
• Dockerizing Elixir releases using Nix-based images
• Home Manager for personal environment configuration
• Security patching workflows in a Nix-managed infrastructure
• Common pitfalls: flake performance, sandbox workarounds, and symlink behavior
• Community resources and the importance of human mentorship

Links mentioned:

https://jobrad-loop.com/
https://nixos.org/
https://nix.dev/
https://nix.dev/manual/nix/2.18/command-ref/nix-shell
https://github.com/nix-darwin/nix-darwin
https://asdf-vm.com/
https://go.dev/
https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/packaging_and_distributing_software/introduction-to-rpm_packaging-and-distributing-software
Nix Flake templates for Elixir https://github.com/jurraca/elixir-templates
https://www.docker.com/
https://www.sudo.ws/
https://ubuntu.com/
https://archlinux.org/
Nobbz’s blog https://blog.nobbz.dev/blog/
https://ayats.org/blog/nix-workflow
@nobbz.dev on BlueSky
@NobbZ1981 on Twitter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/norbert-melzer/
https://youtu.be/HbtbdLolHeM?si=6M7fulTQZmuWGGCM (talk on CodeBEAM)

Elixir creator José Valim returns to the podcast to unpack the latest developments in Elixir’s set-theoretic type system and how it is slotting into existing code without requiring annotations. We discuss familiar compiler warnings, new warnings based on inferred types, a phased rollout in v1.19/v1.20 that preserves backward compatibility, performance profiling the type checks across large codebases, and precise typing for maps as both records and dictionaries.

José also touches on CNRS academic collaborations, upcoming LSP/tooling enhancements, and future possibilities like optional annotations and guard-clause typing, all while keeping Elixir’s dynamic, developer-friendly experience front and center.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• Set-theoretic typing (union, intersection, difference)
• Compiler-driven inference with zero annotations
• Phased rollout strategy in 1.19 and 1.20
• Performance profiling for large codebases
• Map typing as records and dictionaries
• Exhaustivity checks and behavioral typing in GenServers
• Language Server Protocol & tooling updates
• Future optional annotations and guard-clause typing
• CNRS collaboration for theoretical foundations
• Clear error messages and false-positive reduction
• Community-driven feedback and iterative improvements

Links mentioned:

https://github.com/elixir-nx
https://livebook.dev/
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.html
https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/main/gradual-set-theoretic-types.html
https://hexdocs.pm/dialyxir/0.4.0/readme.html
https://remote.com/
Draw the Owl meme: https://i.imgur.com/rCr9A.png
https://dashbit.co/blog/data-evolution-with-set-theoretic-types
https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.html
https://github.com/elixir-lsp/elixir-ls

Special Guest: José Valim.

Zack Kayser, Staff Software Engineer at cars.com, joins Elixir Wizards Sundi Myint and Charles Suggs to discuss how Cars.com adopted a server-driven UI (SDUI) architecture powered by Elixir and GraphQL to deliver consistent, updatable interfaces across web, iOS, and Android.

We explore why SDUI matters for feature velocity, how a mature design system and schema planning make it feasible, and what it takes, culturally and technically, to move UI logic from client code into a unified backend.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• SDUI fundamentals and how it differs from traditional server-side rendering
• GraphQL as the single source of truth for UI components and layouts
• Defining abstract UI components on the server to eliminate duplicate logic
• Leveraging a robust design system as the foundation for SDUI success
• API-first development and cross-team coordination for schema changes
• Mock data strategies for early UI feedback without breaking clients
• Handling breaking changes and hot-fix deployments via server-side updates
• Enabling flexible layouts and A/B testing through server-controlled ordering
• Balancing server-driven vs. client-managed UI
• Iterative SDUI rollout versus “big-bang” migrations in large codebases
• Using type specs and Dialyxir for clear cross-team communication
• Integration testing at the GraphQL layer to catch UI regressions early
• Quality engineering’s role in validating server-driven interfaces
• Production rollback strategies across web and native platforms
• Considerations for greenfield projects adopting SDUI from day one
• Zack and Ethan's upcoming Instrumenting Elixir Apps book

Links mentioned:

https://cars.com
https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe
Telemetry & Observability for Elixir Apps Ep: https://youtu.be/1V2xEPqqCso
https://www.phoenixframework.org/blog/phoenix-liveview-1.0-released
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/assigns-eex.html
https://graphql.org/
https://tailwindcss.com/
https://github.com/jeremyjh/dialyxir
https://github.com/rrrene/credo
GraphQL Schema https://graphql.org/learn/schema/
SwiftUI https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/ 
Kotlin https://kotlinlang.org/
https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/a-deep-dive-into-airbnbs-server-driven-ui-system-842244c5f5
Zack’s Twitter: https://x.com/kayserzl/
Zack’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-kayser-93b96b88 

Special Guest: Zack Kayser.

Rustler Core Team Member Sonny Scroggin joins Elixir Wizards Sundi Myint and Charles Suggs. Rustler serves as a bridge to write Native Implemented Functions (NIFs) in Rust that can be called from Elixir code. This combo leverages Rust's performance and memory safety while maintaining Elixir's fault tolerance and concurrency model, creating a powerful solution for CPU-intensive operations within Elixir applications.

Sonny provides guidance on when developers should consider using NIFs versus other approaches like ports or external services and highlights the considerations needed when stepping outside Elixir's standard execution model into native code.

Looking toward the future, Sonny discusses exciting developments for Rustler, including an improved asynchronous NIF interface, API modernization efforts, and better tooling. While Rust offers tremendous performance benefits for specific use cases, Sonny emphasizes that Elixir's dynamic nature and the BEAM's capabilities for distributed systems remain unmatched for many applications. Rustler simply provides another powerful tool that expands what developers can accomplish within the Elixir ecosystem.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• Rust as a "high-level low-level language" with memory safety
• NIFs (Native Implemented Functions) in the BEAM virtual machine
• Rustler's role simplifying Rust-Elixir integration with macros
• CPU-intensive operations as primary NIF use cases
• Beam scheduler interaction considerations with native code
• Dirty schedulers for longer-running NIFs in OTP 20+
• Memory safety advantages of Rust for NIFs
• Development workflow using Mix tasks for Rustler
• Common pitfalls when first working with Rust
• Error handling improvements possible with Rustler NIFs
• Differences between ports, NIFs, and external services
• Asynchronous programming approaches in Rust versus Elixir
• Tokyo runtime integration for asynchronous operations
• Static NIFs for mobile device compatibility
• Upcoming CLI tooling to simplify Rustler development
• Rustler's API modernization efforts for better ergonomics
• Thread pool sharing across multiple NIFs
• Wasm integration possibilities for the BEAM
• Compile-time safety versus dynamic runtime capabilities
• Performance considerations when implementing NIFs
• Compiler-assisted memory management in Rust
• Automatic encoding/decoding between Rust and Elixir types
• The importance of proper error handling
• Real-world application in high-traffic authentication servers
• Community resources for learning Rustler

Links mentioned:

https://github.com/rusterlium/rustler
https://github.com/rust-lang/rust
https://www.angelfire.lycos.com/
https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/flash-websites
https://www.php.net/
https://xmpp.org/
https://jabberd2.org/
Geocities: https://cybercultural.com/p/geocities-1995/ (fun fact: when you search Geocities on Google, the results page is in Comic Sans font.)
https://bleacherreport.com/
https://hexdocs.pm/jose/readme.html
https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-bindgen
Erlang Ports: https://www.erlang.org/doc/system/c_port.html
Erlang ETFs (External Term Format): https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/erts/erl_ext_dist.html
Elixir gRPC https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc
gRPC (“Remote Proceduce Call”): https://grpc.io/
dirty_cpu.ex https://github.com/E-xyza/zigler/blob/main/lib/zig/nif/dirty_cpu.ex
ets https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/stdlib/ets.html
Mnesia https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/mnesia/mnesia.html
VPPs (Virtual Power Plants): https://www.energy.gov/lpo/virtual-power-plants
https://nixos.org/
WASM WebAssembly with Elixir: https://github.com/RoyalIcing/Orb
Rust Tokio https://tokio.rs/

Getting Started:
https://hexdocs.pm/rustler/0.17.0/Mix.Tasks.Rustler.New.html
https://rustup.rs/

Special Guest: Sonny Scroggin.

Today on Elixir Wizards, hosts Sundi Myint and Charles Suggs catch up with Sean Moriarity, co-creator of the Nx project and author of Machine Learning in Elixir. Sean reflects on his transition from the military to a civilian job building large language models (LLMs) for software. He explains how the Elixir ML landscape has evolved since the rise of ChatGPT, shifting from building native model implementations toward orchestrating best-in-class tools.

We discuss the pragmatics of adding ML to Elixir apps: when to start with out-of-the-box LLMs vs. rolling your own, how to hook into Python-based libraries, and how to tap Elixir’s distributed computing for scalable workloads. Sean closes with advice for developers embarking on Elixir ML projects, from picking motivating use cases to experimenting with domain-specific languages for AI-driven workflows.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• The evolution of the Nx (Numerical Elixir) project and what's new with ML in Elixir
• Treating Elixir as an orchestration layer for external ML tools
• When to rely on off-the-shelf LLMs vs. custom models
• Strategies for integrating Elixir with Python-based ML libraries
• Leveraging Elixir’s distributed computing strengths for ML tasks
• Starting ML projects with existing data considerations
• Synthetic data generation using large language models
• Exploring DSLs to streamline AI-powered business logic
• Balancing custom frameworks and service-based approaches in production
• Pragmatic advice for getting started with ML in Elixir

Links mentioned:

https://hexdocs.pm/nx/intro-to-nx.html
https://pragprog.com/titles/smelixir/machine-learning-in-elixir/
https://magic.dev/
https://smartlogic.io/podcast/elixir-wizards/s10-e10-sean-moriarity-machine-learning-elixir/
Pragmatic Bookshelf: https://pragprog.com/
ONNX Runtime Bindings for Elixir: https://github.com/elixir-nx/ortex
https://github.com/elixir-nx/bumblebee
Silero Voice Activity Detector: https://github.com/snakers4/silero-vad
Paulo Valente Graph Splitting Article: https://dockyard.com/blog/2024/11/06/2024/nx-sharding-update-part-1
Thomas Millar's Twitter https://x.com/thmsmlr
https://github.com/thmsmlr/instructor_ex
https://phoenix.new/
https://tidewave.ai/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BERT_(language_model)
Talk: PyTorch: Fast Differentiable Dynamic Graphs in Python by Soumith Chintala
https://hexdocs.pm/axon/Axon.html
https://hexdocs.pm/exla/EXLA.html
VLM (Vision Language Models Explained): https://huggingface.co/blog/vlms
https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp
Vector Search in Elixir: https://github.com/elixir-nx/hnswlib
https://www.amplified.ai/
Llama 4 https://mistral.ai/

Mistral Open-Source LLMs: https://mistral.ai/
https://github.com/openai/whisper
Elixir Wizards Season 5: Adopting Elixir https://smartlogic.io/podcast/elixir-wizards/season-five
https://docs.ray.io/en/latest/ray-overview/index.html
https://hexdocs.pm/flame/FLAME.html
https://firecracker-microvm.github.io/
https://fly.io/
https://kubernetes.io/
WireGuard VPNs https://www.wireguard.com/
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenixpubsub/Phoenix.PubSub.html
https://www.manning.com/books/deep-learning-with-python
Code BEAM 2025 Keynote: Designing LLM Native Systems - Sean Moriarity
Ash Framework https://ash-hq.org/
Sean’s Twitter: https://x.com/seanmoriarity
Sean’s Personal Blog: https://seanmoriarity.com/

Erlang Ecosystems Foundation Slack: https://erlef.org/slack-invite/erlef
Elixir Forum https://elixirforum.com/
Sean’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-m-ba231a149/

Special Guest: Sean Moriarity.

Mark Ericksen, creator of the Elixir LangChain framework, joins the Elixir Wizards to talk about LLM integration in Elixir apps. He explains how LangChain abstracts away the quirks of different AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini) so you can work with any LLM in one more consistent API. We dig into core features like conversation chaining, tool execution, automatic retries, and production-grade fallback strategies.

Mark shares his experiences maintaining LangChain in a fast-moving AI world: how it shields developers from API drift, manages token budgets, and handles rate limits and outages. He also reveals testing tactics for non-deterministic AI outputs, configuration tips for custom authentication, and the highlights of the new v0.4 release, including “content parts” support for thinking-style models.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• Abstracting LLM APIs behind a unified Elixir interface
• Building and managing conversation chains across multiple models
• Exposing application functionality to LLMs through tool integrations
• Automatic retries and fallback chains for production resilience
• Supporting a variety of LLM providers
• Tracking and optimizing token usage for cost control
• Configuring API keys, authentication, and provider-specific settings
• Handling rate limits and service outages with degradation
• Processing multimodal inputs (text, images) in Langchain workflows
• Extracting structured data from unstructured LLM responses
• Leveraging “content parts” in v0.4 for advanced thinking-model support
• Debugging LLM interactions using verbose logging and telemetry
• Kickstarting experiments in LiveBook notebooks and demos
• Comparing Elixir LangChain to the original Python implementation
• Crafting human-in-the-loop workflows for interactive AI features
• Integrating Langchain with the Ash framework for chat-driven interfaces
• Contributing to open-source LLM adapters and staying ahead of API changes
• Building fallback chains (e.g., OpenAI → Azure) for seamless continuity
• Embedding business logic decisions directly into AI-powered tools
• Summarization techniques for token efficiency in ongoing conversations
• Batch processing tactics to leverage lower-cost API rate tiers
• Real-world lessons on maintaining uptime amid LLM service disruptions

Links mentioned:
https://rubyonrails.org/
https://fly.io/
https://zionnationalpark.com/
https://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/
https://github.com/brainlid/langchain
https://openai.com/
https://claude.ai/
https://gemini.google.com/
https://www.anthropic.com/
Vertex AI Studio https://cloud.google.com/generative-ai-studio
https://www.perplexity.ai/
https://azure.microsoft.com/
https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.html
https://oban.pro/
Chris McCord’s ElixirConf EU 2025 Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojL_VHc4gLk

Getting started:
https://hexdocs.pm/langchain/getting_started.html
https://ash-hq.org/
https://hex.pm/packages/langchain
https://hexdocs.pm/igniter/readme.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM9iQlQSF_g
@brainlid on Twitter and BlueSky

Special Guest: Mark Ericksen.

Connor Rigby joins the Elixir Wizards to talk about Blue Heron BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) support for Elixir apps. Blue Heron implements the BLE specs in pure Elixir, leveraging binary pattern matching and concurrent message processing to handle Bluetooth protocols. Unlike most solutions that require C ports or NIFs, Blue Heron runs entirely in user space, so it works seamlessly in both Nerves-based embedded projects and (eventually) desktop Elixir applications.

We discuss how Nerves development differs from building Phoenix apps. Connor shares challenges he's experienced with hardware compatibility, where some chips only partially implement the spec, and he discusses the surprisingly deep (but sometimes incomplete) world of BLE device profiles. His tip for anyone entering the BLE space: read the official spec instead of trusting secondhand blog posts. Tools like Nerves LiveBook give you hands-on examples, so you can get a BLE prototype running on a Raspberry Pi and your phone in no time.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• Blue Heron origins and “bird” naming convention
• BLE vs. Bluetooth Classic: core differences
• Pure Elixir implementation—no C dependencies
• Binary pattern matching for packet parsing
• Hardware transport options: UART, SPI, USB, SDIO
• GenServer patterns in Nerves vs. Phoenix
• Linux requirement and power-consumption trade-offs
• GATT (Generic Attribute Table) implementation patterns
• SQLite integration for Nerves apps
• Hardware chip quirks and spec compliance
• Manufacturer-specific commands and workarounds
• BLE device profiles and spec gaps
• Security Management Profile (SMP) for encryption
• Device connection and pairing workflows
• Web vs. embedded development differences
• Where to get started: hardware recommendations and docs

Links mentioned:

https://github.com/ConnorRigby/
https://github.com/blue-heron/
https://nerves-project.org/
BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_Low_Energy
https://developer.apple.com/ibeacon/

https://learnyousomeerlang.com/building-otp-applications
Linux https://www.linux.org/
HCI (Host Controller Interface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_controller_interface
Circuits UART Library https://hexdocs.pm/circuits_uart/readme.html
SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) https://github.com/elixir-circuits/circuits_spi
SDIO (Secure Digital Input Output https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDIO
Raspberry Pi https://www.raspberrypi.com/
Coral SoM Dev Board https://coral.ai/products/dev-board/
BeagleBone Single-Board Linux Computer https://www.beagleboard.org/boards/beaglebone-black
https://www.bluetooth.com/bluetooth-resources/intro-to-bluetooth-gap-gatt/
Genservers https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/1.12/GenServer.html
https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.html
https://github.com/elixir-sqlite/ecto_sqlite3
https://github.com/nerves-livebook/nerves_livebook

Special Guest: Connor Rigby.

In the Season 14 premiere, hosts Dan Ivovich and Sundi Myint chat with Isaac Yonemoto, creator of the Zigler library, to explore how Zigler brings Zig’s performance and safety to Elixir through Native Implemented Functions (NIFs). Isaac walks through the core design of Zigler and how it auto-generates the Elixir-to-Zig bridge, enforces type safety, and exposes multiple execution modes (normal, dirty, threaded). The conversation covers real-world applications, from SIMD-powered token selection for LLM hardware acceleration to OTP-style fault tolerance in low-level code.

Isaac shares his own journey: stepping back from professional software work to launch a biotech startup focused on reducing drug manufacturing costs while continuing to maintain Zigler and even leveraging Elixir for bioinformatics pipelines.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• What is the Zigler library and what does it do?
• What does it mean to run a "dirty NIF"?
• Async mode is temporarily removed from Zig (therefore, yielding NIFs is temporarily deprecated in Zigler)
• Zigler’s three execution modes (normal, dirty, and threaded) and how you switch modes with a single config change
• Isaac’s journey from professional software work to launching a biotech startup
• How Isaac leverages Elixir in bioinformatics pipelines at his startup
• LLM hardware acceleration using Zigler NIFs and SIMD-powered token picking
• Fault-tolerant load balancing of NIF workloads via OTP principles
• Transparent handling and recovery from hardware failures through monitoring
• Potential future memory-safety features in Zig and their implications
• The Elixir-based borrow-checker prototype: purpose and design
• Unit-checking for scientific computations to enforce correctness
• New OS support in Zigler 0.14: macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD
• Inline Zig code authoring directly within Elixir modules
• Isaac's commitment to maintain Zigler through its 1.0 release (...and beyond?)

Links mentioned:

https://github.com/E-xyza/zigler
https://github.com/ziglang/zig
https://vidalalabs.com/
Zig Programming Language: https://ziglang.org/
https://obsidian.md/
https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/macros.html
https://erlang.org/documentation/doc-4.7.3/doc/extensions/macros.html
A Deep Dive Into the Elixir AST: https://dorgan.ar/posts/2021/04/the_elixir_ast/
https://www.erlang.org/doc/system/nif.html
https://nodejs.org/en
Llama Open-Source LLM: https://www.llama.com/
Mixtral Open-Source LLM: https://mistral.ai/news/mixtral-of-experts
https://Fly.io
SIMD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_instruction,_multiple_data
https://opentrons.com/
CI/CD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CI/CD
https://hexdocs.pm/zigler/Zig.html
http://www.x.com/DNAutics
https://bsky.app/profile/dnautics.bsky.social

For the Season 13 finale, Elixir Wizards Dan and Charles are joined by Spin42 Engineers Marc Lainez, Thibault Poncelet, and Loïc Vigneron to discuss their work retrofitting a 2007 VW Polo and creating an Open Vehicle Control System (OVCS). Using Elixir, Nerves, and Raspberry Pis, the team is reimagining vehicle technology to extend the lifespan of older cars and reduce waste—all while making the process approachable and open source.

The Spin42 team shares the technical details behind OVCS and how they use Elixir and Nerves to interact with the CAN bus and build a Vehicle Management System (VMS) to coordinate various vehicle components. They dive into the challenges of reverse engineering CAN messages, designing a distributed architecture with Elixir processes, and ensuring safety with fail-safe modes and emergency shutoffs.

Beyond the technical, the team discusses their motivation for the project—upgrading older vehicles with modern features to keep them on the road, building an open-source platform to share their findings with others, and above all-- to just have fun. They explore potential applications for OVCS in boats, construction equipment, and other vehicles, while reflecting on the hurdles of certifying the system for road use.

If you’ve ever wondered how Elixir and Nerves can drive innovation beyond software, this episode is packed with insights into automotive computing, hardware development, and the collaborative potential of open-source projects.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• Retrofitting a 2007 VW Polo with electric engines and modern tech
• Building an open-source Vehicle Control System (OVCS) using Elixir and Nerves
• Leveraging Elixir to interact with the CAN bus and parse proprietary messages
• Designing a Vehicle Management System (VMS) to coordinate vehicle components
• Developing custom hardware for CAN communication
• Creating a YAML-based DSL for CAN message and frame descriptions
• Building a distributed architecture using Elixir processes
• Ensuring safety with fail-safe modes and emergency shutoffs
• Using Flutter and Nerves to build a custom infotainment system
• Exploring autonomous driving features with a ROS2 bridge
• Developing remote control functionality with a Mavlink transmitter
• Testing OVCS features at scale with a Traxxas RC car (OVCS Mini)
• Challenges of certifying OVCS for road use and meeting regulatory requirements
• Encouraging community contributions to expand OVCS functionality
• Balancing open-source projects with contract work to sustain development
• The fun and fulfillment of experimenting with Elixir beyond traditional applications

Links mentioned:

https://www.spin42.com/
https://nerves-project.org/
Quadcopter https://github.com/Spin42/elicopter
https://github.com/linux-can/can-utils
https://docs.kernel.org/networking/can.html
https://github.com/open-vehicle-control-system/cantastic
https://github.com/commaai/opendbc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus#CAN_FD
https://comma.ai/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_FD
https://webkit.org/wpe/
https://docs.nvidia.com/jetson/archives/r35.4.1/DeveloperGuide/text/SD/WindowingSystems/WestonWayland.html
https://buildroot.org/
https://vuejs.org/
https://flutter.dev/
https://github.com/smartrent/elixir_flutter_embedder
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-5/
The Rabbit Pickup https://www.hemmings.com/stories/value-guide-1980-83-volkswagen-pickup
https://www.expresslrs.org/software/mavlink
https://industrial-training-master.readthedocs.io/en/melodic/_source/session7/ROS1-ROS2-bridge.html
https://github.com/ros2/rcl
https://github.com/open-vehicle-control-system/traxxas
Contact Marc, Thibault, and Loïc: info@spin42.com

Special Guests: Loïc Vigneron, Marc Lainez, and Thibault Poncelet.

The Elixir Wizards welcome Jim Freeze, organizer of ElixirConf and creator of the Horizon library. Jim shares his journey from organizing Ruby conferences to founding and growing ElixirConf into the community cornerstone it is today. He reflects on the challenges of running a major conference, how COVID-19 shaped the event, and why the talks remain an evergreen resource for the Elixir ecosystem.

We discuss Horizon, Jim’s deployment library for Elixir and Phoenix applications with Postgres on FreeBSD. Driven by a need for simplicity and cost-effectiveness, Jim explains how Horizon minimizes external dependencies while delivering fault-tolerant and streamlined setups. He compares it to tools like Fly, Terraform, and Ansible, highlighting its low cognitive load and flexibility—key benefits for developers seeking more control over their deployment environments.

Jim also unpacks the broader value of understanding and customizing your deployment stack rather than relying solely on managed services. He discusses the benefits of using FreeBSD, including its stability, security, and performance advantages, as well as its robust ZFS file system.

Jim emphasizes the importance of coherent deployment workflows, community collaboration, and contributions to open-source projects like Horizon. He invites listeners to explore Horizon, share feedback, and own their deployments.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Jim Freeze’s background organizing RubyConf and founding ElixirConf
• Reducing reliance on managed services and external dependencies
• Simplifying deployments with minimal tools and lower cognitive overhead
• The trade-offs of cutting-edge tools vs. stable, well-documented solutions
• The importance of customizing deployment tools to meet specific needs
• Addressing challenges with Tailwind compatibility
• Streamlining the FreeBSD installation process for Horizon users
• Community collaboration: contributing to open-source tools
• Jim’s vision for Horizon: PKI support, hot standby features, and serverless potential

Links mentioned

Nine Minutes of Elixir
https://www.youtube.com/@ElixirConf
https://github.com/liveview-native
https://github.com/elixir-nx/nx
https://2024.elixirconf.com/
https://github.com/jfreeze/horizon
https://hexdocs.pm/horizon/deploying-with-horizon.html#web-cluster-topology
https://kamal-deploy.org/
https://fly.io/
https://aws.amazon.com/console/
https://www.digitalocean.com/
https://cloud.google.com/
https://www.cloudflare.com/
https://www.hetzner.com/
https://www.proxmox.com/en/
https://nginx.org/
https://github.com/openzfs/zfs
Zettabyte File System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS
https://www.postgresql.org/
https://www.terraform.io/
https://www.ansible.com/
https://docs.freebsd.org/
https://www.redhat.com/
https://ubuntu.com/
https://esbuild.github.io/
Listener's Survey: https://smr.tl/EWS13

Special Guest: Jim Freeze.

Zack Kayser and Ethan Gunderson, Software Engineers at Cars Commerce, join the Elixir Wizards to share their expertise on telemetry and observability in large-scale systems. Drawing from their experience at Cars.com—a platform handling high traffic and concurrent users—they discuss the technical and organizational challenges of scaling applications, managing microservices, and implementing effective observability practices.

The conversation highlights the pivotal role observability plays in diagnosing incidents, anticipating system behavior, and asking unplanned questions of a system. Zack and Ethan explore tracing, spans, and the unique challenges introduced by LiveView deployments and WebSocket connections.

They also discuss the benefits of OpenTelemetry as a vendor-agnostic instrumentation tool, the significance of Elixir’s telemetry library, and practical steps for developers starting their observability journey. Additionally, Zack and Ethan introduce their upcoming book, Instrumenting Elixir Applications, which will offer guidance on integrating telemetry and tracing into Elixir projects.

Topics Discussed:

• Cars.com’s transition to Elixir and scaling solutions
• The role of observability in large-scale systems
• Uncovering insights by asking unplanned system questions
• Managing high-traffic and concurrent users with Elixir
• Diagnosing incidents and preventing recurrence using telemetry
• Balancing data collection with storage constraints
• Sampling strategies for large data volumes
• Tracing and spans in observability
• LiveView’s influence on deployments and WebSocket behavior
• Mitigating downstream effects of socket reconnections
• Contextual debugging for system behavior insights
• Observability strategies for small vs. large-scale apps
• OpenTelemetry for vendor-agnostic instrumentation
• Leveraging OpenTelemetry contrib libraries for easy setup
• Elixir’s telemetry library as an ecosystem cornerstone
• Tracing as the first step in observability
• Differentiating observability from business analytics
• Profiling with OpenTelemetry Erlang project tools
• The value of profiling for performance insights
• Making observability tools accessible and impactful for developers

Links Mentioned

https://www.carscommerce.inc/
https://www.cars.com/
https://hexdocs.pm/telemetry/readme.html
https://kubernetes.io/
https://github.com/ninenines/cowboy
https://hexdocs.pm/bandit/Bandit.html
https://hexdocs.pm/broadway/Broadway.html
https://hexdocs.pm/oban/Oban.html
https://www.dynatrace.com/
https://www.jaegertracing.io/
https://newrelic.com/
https://www.datadoghq.com/
https://www.honeycomb.io/
https://fly.io/phoenix-files/how-phoenix-liveview-form-auto-recovery-works/
https://www.elastic.co/
https://opentelemetry.io/
https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/erlang/
https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/signals/traces/
https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otel/logs/
https://github.com/runfinch/finch
https://hexdocs.pm/telemetry_metrics/Telemetry.Metrics.html
https://opentelemetry.io/blog/2024/state-profiling
https://www.instrumentingelixir.com/
https://prometheus.io/
https://www.datadoghq.com/dg/monitor/ts/statsd/
https://x.com/kayserzl
https://github.com/zkayser
https://bsky.app/profile/ethangunderson.com 
https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib

Special Guests: Ethan Gunderson and Zack Kayser.

AJ (Alykhan Jetha), CEO and CTO of Marketcircle, joins the Elixir Wizards to share his experience building and evolving Daylite, their award-winning CRM and business productivity app for Apple users. He details his experiences as a self-taught programmer and how Marketcircle has navigated pivots, challenges, and opportunities since its founding in 1999.

AJ explains why they migrated Daylite’s backend to Elixir, focusing on their sync engine, which demands high concurrency and fault tolerance. He highlights how Elixir has improved performance, reduced cloud costs, and simplified development with its approachable syntax and productive workflows.

The conversation also touches on the technical hurdles of deploying native apps for Apple devices and the potential for integrating new technologies like LiveView Native to streamline cross-platform development.

For technical founders, AJ emphasizes the importance of leveraging your strengths (“superpowers”), staying deeply connected to the development process, and finding stability in tools like Elixir amidst a rapidly evolving tech ecosystem. He also shares Marketcircle’s roadmap for migrating more customers to Elixir-powered systems and explores the potential for new features in their native apps.

Tune in for insights on building resilient systems, navigating technical and business challenges, and how Elixir is shaping Marketcircle’s future.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• AJ’s journey as a self-taught programmer and entrepreneur
• Marketcircle’s evolution since 1999 and lessons from their pivots
• Daylite’s growth as a flagship product for Apple users
• Migrating to Elixir for high concurrency and fault tolerance
• How Elixir improved performance and reduced cloud costs
• The simplicity of Elixir and its impact on developer onboarding
• Challenges in managing a growing microservices architecture
• Insights into deploying native apps for the Apple ecosystem
• Exploring LiveView Native for future cross-platform development
• Advice for technical founders: leveraging your superpowers
• Staying connected to development to maintain system understanding
• The role of Elixir in improving development efficiency and stability
• Planning gradual customer migrations to an Elixir-powered backend
• Potential new features for Daylite’s native apps
• Benefits of collaboration with the Elixir community
• #ElixirMullet -- native app in the front, Elixir in the back
• Navigating a rapidly evolving tech ecosystem as a founder
• Leveraging Elixir to future-proof Marketcircle’s systems
• Balancing technical and business priorities in a startup environment
• AJ’s thoughts on the future of Elixir in powering business tools

Links mentioned:

https://www.marketcircle.com/
Daylite.app
https://www.nextcomputers.org/
https://www.digitalocean.com/
Python Async https://docs.python.org/3/library/asyncio.html
https://github.com/sinatra/sinatra
https://github.com/dependabot
https://kafka.apache.org/
https://www.djangoproject.com/
https://github.com/socketry/falcon
https://github.com/puma/puma
https://www.swift.org/blog/announcing-swift-6/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Async/await
https://www.ffmpeg.org/
https://www.sqlite.org/
https://github.com/commanded/commanded
https://pragprog.com/titles/khpes/real-world-event-sourcing/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
https://reactnative.dev/
https://www.electronjs.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alykhanjetha/
https://bsky.app/profile/ajetha.bsky.social

Special Guest: Alykhan Jetha.

Justin Tormey, co-founder of Castmagic, joins the Elixir Wizards to discuss building an AI-powered content creation app. Castmagic repurposes audio and video into social media posts, blog articles, newsletters, and more. The tech stack leverages OpenAI and Anthropic LLMs with Elixir as the coordination layer and Phoenix LiveView powering the front end.

Justin dives into the technical details of Castmagic, including the integration of JavaScript libraries like ProseMirror and TipTap through LiveSvelte, as well as enabling real-time collaboration with CRDTs and YDoc. He shares the benefits and challenges of using Elixir for rapid development, as well as the trade-offs between custom code and off-the-shelf solutions.

The conversation also covers Justin’s entrepreneurial journey, highlighting the advantages of bootstrapping over venture capital, the importance of acquiring early customers, and creative marketing strategies like affiliate programs and software marketplaces.

Whether you're an Elixirist exploring machine learning or an aspiring tech founder, tune in to learn more about AI with Elixir, navigating startup challenges, and turning ideas into impactful software.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Building Castmagic to generate content from audio and video for creators
• Using AI services like OpenAI and Anthropic for transcription and workflows
• Elixir as the coordination layer for complex processes
• Rapid UI development with Phoenix LiveView
• Integrating rich text editing libraries through LiveSvelte
• Enabling collaborative editing with CRDTs and YDoc
• Balancing offline functionality with cloud-based AI tools
• Challenges of working with external AI services
• Exploring the future of multimodal AI in product development
• Bootstrapping vs. venture capital: benefits and challenges
• Strategies for finding distribution channels and early adopters
• Creative approaches to marketing, including affiliates and marketplaces
• Balancing engineering efforts with customer and business needs
• Practical advice for navigating the early stages of a startup

Links mentioned:

https://www.castmagic.io/
https://pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang2/programming-erlang-2nd-edition/
https://www.blockchain.com/
https://fly.io/
https://hexdocs.pm/live_svelte/readme.html
https://github.com/woutdp/live_svelte
https://prosemirror.net/
https://tiptap.dev/
https://docs.yjs.dev/api/y.doc
https://hexdocs.pm/polymorphic_embed/readme.html
https://github.com/elixir-nx/nx
https://github.com/elixir-nx/tokenizers
https://github.com/thmsmlr/instructor_ex
https://openai.com/
https://www.anthropic.com/
https://getoban.pro/
https://github.com/wojtekmach/req
https://ollama.com/
https://x.com/j_tormey

Special Guest: Justin Tormey.

Stephen Solka, CTO and co-founder of Standd.io, joins Elixir Wizards Owen and Charles to share the journey of building an AI-native deal intelligence and due diligence platform. Designed to streamline document analysis and text generation for venture capital firms, Standd.io leverages large language models and AI tools to address key customer pain points in document workflows.

Stephen explains how Elixir and Phoenix LiveView enabled rapid UI iteration and seamless integration between the front-end and back-end.

The conversation also explores the human side of startup life. Stephen reflects on balancing tech debt with customer demands, the value of accelerators in building networks and securing funding, and the challenges of pricing in early-stage startups. He emphasizes the importance of validating ideas with potential customers and learning from the hurdles of growing a business.

Tune in for insights on leveraging AI in Elixir, solving real-world problems, and navigating the journey from concept to company.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• The journey from self-taught programmer to CTO
• The perks of Phoenix LiveView for rapid UI development
• Integrating front-end and back-end technologies
• AI tools for code generation
• How early adopters balance functionality with product polish
• Validating ideas and understanding customer needs
• The impact of accelerators on networking and fundraising
• Approaches to managing pricing strategies for startups
• Balancing technical debt with feature development
• The role of telemetry and error reporting in product development
• Creating collaborative and supportive tech communities
• Educating users on AI’s capabilities and limitations
• The broader implications of AI tools across industries

Links Mentioned

Contact Stephen & Julie at Standd: founders@standd.io
https://www.standd.io/
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/gangs-of-four-gof-design-patterns
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/code-complete_steve-mcconnell/248753/item/15057346/
https://aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/
https://www.anthropic.com/
https://getoban.pro/
https://kubernetes.io/
https://www.apollographql.com/
https://aws.amazon.com/startups/accelerators
https://accelerate.techstars.com/
https://aider.chat/
https://github.com/Aider-AI/aider
https://neovim.io/
https://ui.shadcn.com/
https://tailwindui.com/
https://www.ycombinator.com/
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/close-to-the-machine-technophilia-and-its-discontents_ellen-ullman/392556

Special Guest: Stephen Solka.

Today on Elixir Wizards, Owen Bickford, fellow Wizard and creator of the WebauthnComponents library, joins us to talk about building passwordless authentication for Phoenix LiveView applications. Owen walks us through the evolution of authentication—touching on everything from plain text passwords to multi-factor setups—and explains the security flaws and user experience issues each method presents. He describes passkeys, a solution based on the WebAuthn API, which improves security and ease of use.

The conversation covers cross-device support for passkeys, the role of password managers in keeping credentials synced, and ideas for enhancing WebauthnComponents, like supporting multiple passkeys per account. Owen invites listeners to contribute to the library’s development on GitHub and emphasizes the role passkeys play in improving app security and user experience.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Passkeys and the shift toward passwordless authentication
• WebAuthn API and its role in secure login systems
• Creating the WebauthnComponents library for Phoenix LiveView
• History of authentication from basic passwords to multi-factor approaches
• Security gaps and user experience challenges with traditional methods
• Asymmetric cryptography’s impact on secure logins
• Hardware-based credential storage and generation with Trusted Platform Modules
• Structure and components of the WebAuthn library: dependencies, LiveViews, and Ecto schemas
• Live components for real-time server-browser interactions
• Passkeys as a primary or secondary authentication method
• Key business considerations when choosing authentication methods
• Cross-device support for passkeys and credential syncing
• Strategies for passkey recovery if devices are lost
• Ensuring secure access in unattended environments
• Elixir’s ecosystem advantages for building authentication systems
• Simplifying JavaScript complexity within Elixir projects
• Future-proofing WebAuthn Components for seamless updates
• Using Igniter to enhance customization and refactoring
• Developer-friendly tools for secure authentication
• Inviting community contributions on GitHub and the Elixir forum
• Plans for telemetry and performance tracking
• Why adopting passkeys is a win for app security and user experience

Links mentioned:

https://github.com/liveshowy/webauthn_components
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_(cryptography)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_table
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication
https://oauth.net/2/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Authentication_API
https://www.w3.org/TR/webauthn-3/
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/tips/windows-hello
https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/resource/trusted-platform-module-tpm-summary/
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/mix_phx_gen_auth.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography
SSH Protocol (Secure Shell) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell
https://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-5-overview/
https://fidoalliance.org/how-fido-works/
https://1password.com/
https://keepassxc.org/
https://hexdocs.pm/ecto_ulid/Ecto.ULID.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier
https://hexdocs.pm/ecto/Ecto.Schema.html
https://hexdocs.pm/sourceror/
https://github.com/ash-project/igniter
Forum thread:
https://elixirforum.com/t/webauthnlivecomponent-passwordless-auth-for-liveview-apps/49941

Today on Elixir Wizards, indie developer Lucas Sifoni shares his experience prototyping a remote-controlled terrestrial telescope using Elixir, Nerves, Rust, and various hardware components.

Lucas explains the basic components of a telescope, the challenges he faced during the development process, and the benefits of using Elixir and Nerves for hardware projects. Lucas emphasizes the importance of simulating hardware components and testing assumptions before working with physical devices, as well as the value of literate programming and executable blog posts for documenting and sharing the process.

Lucas encourages listeners to explore Nerves and build their own hardware projects. He also gives a shout-out to the Nerves core team for their incredible work.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Challenges in optimizing wiring and PCB design for the prototype
• Benefits of Elixir and Nerves for hardware projects
• Communicating with Arduinos using serial connections and pattern matching
• Leveraging binary pattern matching and construction in Elixir for hardware
• Balancing educational value and real-world usability
• Learning CID software and parametric design for 3D printing components
• Growing interest in Nerves and hardware projects within the Elixir community
• Simulating hardware components and testing assumptions before physical implementation
• Literate programming and executable blog posts for documenting hardware projects
• Using Elixir's interoperability with Rust for performance-critical tasks
• Elixir's low fragmentation and high-quality libraries for various domains
• Potential for using Livebook in hardware projects, with some limitations
• Encouraging listeners to explore Nerves and build their own hardware projects

Links mentioned

https://lucassifoni.info/
https://www.rust-lang.org/
https://go.dev/
https://lisp-lang.org/
https://ubuntu.com/
https://hexdocs.pm/iex/IEx.html
https://nerves-project.org/
https://lucassifoni.info/blog/prototyping-elixir-telescope-code-beam/
https://github.com/Lucassifoni/oiseaux
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix_live_view/Phoenix.LiveView.html
https://www.raspberrypi.com/
https://mangopi.org/
https://store.arduino.cc/products/arduino-nano
https://elixir-circuits.github.io/
https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/runtime_tools/scheduler.html
Binary pattern matching in Elixir with PNG parsing example https://zohaib.me/binary-pattern-matching-in-elixir/
Lucas’ Code Beam Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bleFzA11c
https://github.com/membraneframework-labs
https://github.com/talklittle/ffmpex
https://studio.blender.org/training/3d-printing/
https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametric_design
https://www.exem.fr/
https://www.kikk.be/exhibitions/collectif-lab212-nicolas-guichard-beatrice-lartigue/
https://livebook.dev/
https://github.com/elixir-nx/bumblebee
https://github.com/rusterlium/rustlerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bleFzA11c

Special Guest: Lucas Sifoni.

Today in the Creator’s Lab, Tony Dang joins Elixir Wizards Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford to break down his journey of creating a local-first, offline-ready to-do app using Phoenix LiveView, Svelte, and CRDTs (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types).

Tony explains why offline functionality matters and how this feature can transform various apps. He shares insights on different libraries, algorithms, and techniques for building local-first experiences and highlights the advantages of Elixir and Phoenix LiveView.

Tony also shares his go-to tools, like Inertia.js for connecting Phoenix backends with JavaScript frontends, and favorite Elixir packages like Oban, Joken, and Hammer, offering a toolkit for anyone building powerful, adaptable applications.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Tony Dang's background from mechanical engineer to web developer
• Building an offline-enabled to-do app with Phoenix LiveView and Svelte
• CRDTs: Conflict-free Replicated Data Types for merging changes offline
• How to make a LiveView app work offline
• Sending full state updates vs. incremental updates for performance optimization
• Inspiring others through open-source projects and community contributions
• Learning vanilla Phoenix and Channels to understand LiveView better
• Handling stale CSRF tokens when reconnecting to a LiveView app offline
• Exploring service workers and browser APIs for managing offline connectivity
• Balancing the use of JavaScript and Elixir in web development
• Fostering a supportive and inspiring Elixir community

Links mentioned:

Working in Elevators: How to build an offline-enabled, real-time todo app w/ LiveView, Svelte, & Yjs
Tony’s Twitter: https://x.com/tonydangblog
https://liveview-svelte-pwa.fly.dev/
https://github.com/tonydangblog/liveview-svelte-pwa
CRDT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict-free_replicated_data_type
PWA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app
https://github.com/josevalim/sync
https://github.com/sveltejs/svelte
https://github.com/woutdp/live_svelte
https://github.com/yjs/yjs
https://github.com/satoren/y_ex
https://github.com/y-crdt/y-crdt
https://linear.app/
https://github.com/automerge/automerge
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/1.4.0-rc.1/presence.html
Vaxine, the Rich CRDT Database for ElixirPhoenix Apps | James Arthur | Code BEAM America 2022
https://github.com/electric-sql/vaxine
Hybrid Logical Clocks https://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2014/07/hybrid-logical-clocks.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/256_(number)
CSRF Tokens in LiveView https://hexdocs.pm/phoenixliveview/Phoenix.LiveView.html#getconnectparams/1
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/channels.html
Authentication with Passkeys Talk by Tony
https://www.meetup.com/dc-elixir/
https://github.com/rails/rails
https://github.com/facebook/react-native
https://github.com/vuejs
https://github.com/laravel/laravel
https://hexdocs.pm/phoenixliveview/js-interop.html
https://github.com/inertiajs
https://github.com/inertiajs/inertia-phoenix
https://savvycal.com/
https://github.com/wojtekmach/req
https://github.com/oban-bg/oban
https://github.com/joken-elixir/joken
https://github.com/ExHammer/hammer

Special Guest: Tony Dang.

Today on Elixir Wizards, Bryan Green shares how he transformed a vintage 1930s rotary phone into a fully functional cell phone using Elixir, Nerves, and a mix of hardware components.

Bryan shares the highs and lows of his project, from decoding rotary dial clicks to troubleshooting hardware issues with LED outputs. He explains why Nerves was the perfect fit for this project, offering SSH access, over-the-air updates, and remote debugging. You’ll also hear how Elixir’s concurrency model helped him manage hardware inputs and outputs efficiently using GenStateMachine and Genservers.

Elixir and Nerves really shine when modeling real-world systems. Bryan dives into how he used a finite state machine to track the phone’s states and handled inputs from the rotary dial and hook switch via GPIO.

For hardware enthusiasts, Bryan’s advice is to embrace this “golden age” of DIY electronics. Whether you're experienced with embedded systems or just curious on where to start, Bryan's VintageCell can inspire you to tinker with a hardware engineering project.

Key topics discussed in this episode:

• Advantages of functional programming and immutability in Elixir
• Building hardware projects using Adafruit components
• Why Nerves was the best choice for the VintageCell project
• Interpreting rotary dial clicks using GPIO and circuits.gpio
• Troubleshooting hardware issues with LED diagnostics
• Challenges in optimizing wiring and PCB design
• Benefits of Nerves: SSH access, OTA updates, and remote debugging
• Modeling real-world systems with Elixir and Nerves
• Implementing a finite state machine with GenStateMachine
• Managing input with Genservers for rotary dial and hook switch
• Leveraging community resources like Discord, Elixir Slack, and forums
• Practical advice for keeping hardware projects on track
• Potential applications from SMS servers to home automation

Links mentioned:

Vintage Cellphone: Bridging the Past and Future with Elixir
Seven Languages in Seven Weeks https://pragprog.com/titles/btlang/seven-languages-in-seven-weeks/
Seven More Languages https://pragprog.com/titles/7lang/seven-more-languages-in-seven-weeks/
Node.js https://github.com/nodejs
https://nerves-project.org/
https://www.arduino.cc/
Adafruit Circuit Playground https://www.adafruit.com/category/965
Adafruit 3D Printed Star Trek Communicator https://learn.adafruit.com/3d-printed-star-trek-communicator
Adafruit FONA 3G Cellular + GPS Breakout https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fona-3g-cellular-gps-breakout/overview
https://github.com/elixir-circuits/circuits_gpio
Nerves SSH https://hex.pm/packages/nerves_ssh
OTA (over-the-air) Updates with NervesHub https://www.nerves-hub.org/
https://github.com/kicad
Waveshare 4G Hat for Raspberry Pi https://www.waveshare.com/sim7600e-h-4g-hat.htm
https://hexdocs.pm/gen_state_machine/GenStateMachine.html
https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/GenServer.html
https://www.sparkfun.com/
https://www.digikey.com/
USB-C Gadget Mode with Nerves https://github.com/nerves-project/nerves_system_rpi4/issues/18
https://livebook.dev/
https://codestorm.me/
https://github.com/codestorm1/vintage_cell/

Special Guest: Bryan Green.

To kick off Elixir Wizards Season 13, The Creator's Lab, we're joined by Zach Daniel, the creator of Igniter and the Ash framework. Zach joins hosts Owen Bickford and Charles Suggs to discuss the mechanics and aspirations of his latest brainchild, Igniter—a code generation and project patching framework designed to revolutionize the Elixir development experience.

Igniter isn’t just about generating code; it’s about generating smarter code. By leveraging tools like Sourcerer and Rewrite, Igniter allows developers to modify source code and batch updates by directly interacting with Elixir's AST instead of regex patching. This approach streamlines new project setup and package installations and enhances overall workflow.

They also discuss the strategic implications of Igniter for the broader Elixir community. Zach hopes Igniter will foster a more interconnected and efficient ecosystem that attracts new developers to Elixir and caters to the evolving needs of seasoned Elixir engineers.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Advanced package installation and code generation improve the developer experience
• Scripting and staging techniques streamline project updates
• Innovative methods for smoother installation processes in Elixir packages
• High-level tools apply direct patches to source code
• Progressive feature additions simplify the mix phx.new experience
• Chaining installers and composing tasks for more efficient project setup
• Continuous improvement in developer experiences to boost Elixir adoption
• Encourage listeners to collaborate by sharing code generation patterns
• Introduction of a new mix task aimed at removing the "unless" keyword in preparation for Elixir 1.18
• You can learn more in the upcoming book "Building Web Applications with Ash Framework" by Zach and Rebecca

Links mentioned:

https://smartlogic.io/
https://alembic.com.au/blog/igniter-rethinking-code-generation-with-project-patching
https://hexdocs.pm/igniter/readme.html
https://github.com/ash-project/igniter
https://www.zachdaniel.dev/p/serialization-is-the-secret
https://www.zachdaniel.dev/p/welcome-to-my-substack
https://ash-hq.org/
https://hexdocs.pm/sourceror/readme.html
https://smartlogic.io/podcast/elixir-wizards/s10-e09-hugo-lucas-future-of-elixir-community/
https://github.com/hrzndhrn/rewrite
https://github.com/zachdaniel
https://github.com/liveshowy/webauthn_components
https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/Regex.html
https://github.com/msaraiva/vscode-surface
https://github.com/swoosh/swoosh
https://github.com/erlef/oidcc
https://alembic.com.au/
https://www.zachdaniel.dev/

Special Guest: Zach Daniel.