Review: Metaprogramming Elixir - A great read for this beginner

[Ted]

I picked up Metaprogramming Elixir with the intent of reading it at a later time, once I had a bit more exposure and experience with Elixir.

But then I took a little peek at the first chapter and I was hooked.

Chris McCord’s clear writing style and obvious focus on reader ergonomics, e.g., repeating relevant bits of code, makes the book very readable and engaging.

Regarding content, there were plenty of moments when I thought, “Wait, we’re going to do what next?! Okay, I’ve got time to read a few more pages…”

The book introduced me to Elixir’s AST and the concept of macro hygiene, along with repeatable recipes for building DSLs and testing macros.

As an Elixir noob, I don’t think I’ll be writing my own for-real macros just yet, but I feel that I’ve gain a lot of valuable intuition about how the language works.

[AstonJ]

Nice review Ted!

I bought this book ages ago… just haven’t got around to reading it yet. When do you think is a good time to read this book - before/after which others?

[Ted]

Thanks!

Personally, I read it after wrapping up these two books:

Programming Erlang (2nd edition) (PragProg)

Using Erlang, you’ll be surprised at how easy it becomes to deal with parallel problems, and how much faster and more efficiently your programs run. That’s because Erlang uses sets of parallel processes—not a single sequential process, as found in most programming languages. [jaerlang2] Joe Armstrong edited by Susannah Davidson Pfalzer Using Erlang, you’ll be surprised at how easy it becomes to deal with parallel problems, and how much faster and more efficiently your programs run. That’s …

Programming Elixir 1.6 (PragProg)

Is your current programming language ready for tomorrow? Elixir is. Elixir is a modern, functional language built on the Erlang VM. [elixir16] Dave Thomas @pragdave Is your current programming language ready for tomorrow? Elixir is. Elixir is a modern, functional language built on the Erlang VM. It features pattern matching, hygienic macros, protocols, and is surrounded with great tooling. And it inherits Erlang’s powerful process module and resilience. Start by learning the basics of wri…

Alternatively, the following would also be a fine choice before jumping into Metaprogramming Elixir:

Elixir in Action, Second Edition

[chasekaylee]

Interesting! I had this on my reading list and hoped to read it further down the line, but you convinced me to bump it up in priority.

[wolf4earth]

It’s also a surprisingly short read (roughly 100 pages). Very refreshing when most tech literature are big chunky books.

[PragmaticBookshelf]

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