My first language was C, and I did and still do think that was a fantastic first language because you can start very simply and don't have to learn a ton of programming concepts prior to writing some code. In my experience, learning to code is much more likely to succeed if you can write something (even hello world) and iterate on it. For example, working with people learning Java as their first language, they really struggle because you can't really do a hello world without encountering objects, classes, static keyword, public/private, and other things.
I love functional programming and Elixir, but I do worry that it has a few things like that to learn that might be a barrier to entry for a brand new programmer. Since I started procedurally and years later learned OOP, and then after that learned functional, I have so much baggage that I'm not sure I can weigh Elixir as a first language.
There's also the obvious, "what do you want to do with it?" question that matters. For example if you want to write frontend SPAs or mobile apps you have less flexibility. In this case however, that's largely irrelevant.
Is there anyone here who learned Elixir as their first (or first serious) language who can comment on this? Or is there anybody who started with a functional language and/or a lisp or similar who can comment?
(1) The most important thing to keep in mind while learning a first programming language is that it should teach you the abstract notions of programming, without entrenching your mind into a particular programming paradigm. (When I say paradigm, I mean procedural, functional, object-oriented, message passing---I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.)
I have seen countless _very good_ software engineers struggle when switching but from one paradigm to another, but not between languages of similar paradigms.
In that respect, a multi-paradigm language is the ideal first programming language. Elixir's origins are functional, but it's evolved to be a multi-paradigm language [1].
(2) To have help along the way, you either need a strong/active community, OR a very helpful compiler. Elixir's compiler isn't particularly helpful, and the community is nascent, so in that regard Elixir isn't the best first programming language.
At the end of the day, I think someone's pre-existing mental model of computers should be the tie-breaker (for example, if it's someone with a strong mathematical background, I think they'd enjoy Elixir more than someone who'd get a kick out of making a cute website-based game.)
[1] I'm guessing the Elixir community would consider purely-functional Elixir as the most-aesthetically pleasing Elixir, keeping true to its Erlangian origins.
But three things i think that really matters for someone to pick their first language are: 1. Is syntax and data types easy to grok right off the bat? 2. How fast are they able to make a mental map of the flow and transformations of data only by reading the code? 3. Are the docs easy to read and navigate, and do they instill understanding?
Elixir definitely is for someone that wants to learn it, and are okay with the fact there might not be many resources to learn from. But what i gathered so far is most of the resources and the community really seek to help someone get a deeper understanding of the language and think about the things that go beyond languages like system design and code quality. Yeah there isn't many packages and libraries out there like the more popular languages to put stuff together, but that's where the fun begins. It's like being in uncharted territory where one is forced to engage with what they're doing and learn how to really build stuff from scratch.
For someone thinking about elixir as a first language, hacking around a basic module and testing it out in the repl to building a web app with Phoenix is a great way to learn.
Starting with high-level is fine if they just want to get a job (in which case they should probably just go straight to JS, Java, or C++), but if they want to really learn and understand, start with low-level.
#include
int main() {
printf("Hello, World!");
return 0;
}
class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, World!");
}
}
learning to programming isn't made easy by a language. learning calculus isn't going to be easy if you choose infinitesimals vs episilon-delta. Building understanding in your mind is the process of seeing the important structure through the fog of syntax.
Elixir excels for building highly available networked backend applications. Not that it can’t be good for other things, but I personally tried my hand at it as a scripting language (as a complete newcomer to programming might). For this purpose I had to learn things like Erlang interop, module composition, setting up a mix project, etc. — just to get a small project off the ground. Even as a seasoned developer familiar with syntactically and conceptually comparable languages (Ruby, OCaml…) I found the self-instructional overhead to be atypically high for a programming environment.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I’ve noticed that whenever “best first language” discussions come up, responses tend to be biased toward whichever language people first scrapped something together in for fun. For me that was TI-BASIC. By no means do I think that was a “good” first language - it’s just what was around. But it passed the litmus test of letting me quickly iterate from writing calculator-crashing output loops to making little games for my friends.
For its virtues, Elixir was originally developed to serve a community of experienced web devs trying to solve problems most newcomers don’t know about and won’t encounter — and it shows. I think most novices would be better served by a more “mainstream” scripting language like Python, Ruby, JS, etc.
As for Elixir - going functional with your first language will just be confusing - the student will probably have to learn JS and other OOP languages soon. It makes more sense to me to do this transition when you are an established programmer.
And finally Elixir is not considered an easy language. Your first language ideally will let you get things done in the easiest way possible. For me that also puts typed languages as not ideal but I'm a minority there.
When you've never ever written code everything is hard - I see no point in making it harder so no I see no point in choosing Elixir as a first language.
Finally there's the job market of course, that small thing. Elixir in general is more suited for senior devs who are called to work on super scaley problems and the amount of jobs is small, that's not ideal for a beginner. However I will concede there are way fewer people who know it so maybe it could work out when applying to jobs.
If the main purpose is to find a job, then I would check if there are local Elixir communities/companies nearby that could guide along the way. Elixir is a niche compared to other options out there, so I would recommend doing this ONLY knowing that there would be a strong support available on the way, from start to finish (landing an entry-level job).
On the other hand, if the main driver is curiosity to get into programming and that person feels drawn towards Elixir the most, I would say "just do it". The sheer will to tinker and build cool stuff that works can inflict a very positive feedback loop, which IMO is one of the strongest drivers to bettering oneself at coding. Even if that attempt turns out to be a failure, it's better to fail fast and give something else a try. I believe that in such case, the time spent on tinkering with Elixir will pay off anyway!
I like the idea of starting with pure functional programming. With procedural programming you have to teach two concepts, functions and side-effects. With pure functional you only have to teach one of those concepts. That is until you need to interact with the world, ideally you'd start out with a framework that papers over all of this. Maybe Elm would be good option for this reason? It helps that you can easily produce something graphical that can be interacted with from the very beginning, and building web apps is probably the most common application for programming these days.
Why? Because it has all the tools to handle such complexity, but you still need to understand it.
Someone who has never developed anything serious, or does not know programming, surely don't want to start with implementing such a system because they would not know what is the complexity, what is required, what are the footguns, etc...
By following the principle "use the right tool for the job", elixir is not the right tool to write "hello world".
My subjective answer to your question is: no it's not a good first programming language.
My bonus point: But down the line, you can only benefit from learning it.