60 Days of code: Erlang Edition

I consider myself an advanced beginner in Elixir, being a Rubyist, Elixir was destined to be my next language, like it has been for many other Ruby developers. However, I feel I have never got to the level I wish to be with Elixir, due to a number of reasons, some in my power, some not. Elixir and Erlang are like peanut butter and jelly sandwich, they do go well together; and beyond that, Elixir compiles down to BEAM bytecode.

If Elixir has to compile down to beam bytecode, why then have Elixir and not stick with Erlang. Well, there are those who feel that Elixir was meant to make Erlang more palatable to the masses, and the new generation of programmers, there is some truth to this considering how much Erlang looks cryptic to beginner as well as established programmers, it lacks that C, C++ geneology that is common for most of the languages.

I plan to write more Elixir in the coming years, if I will still be on this ride round the gas giant we call the sun. It is that among other reasons as to why I have decided to challenge myself to do 60 days of Erlang, I may add 40 more days to make it 100 days as is common in the 100 days of code movement lets see how that will turn out.

Among the main deliverables for this endeavour is to achieve the following:

1. Create an Mpesa library in Erlang.
2. Get a better understanding of OTP.
3. Know enough Erlang that I can brag that I am an Erlang Programmer.

None goals (extras) include:

1. Writing the Africa’s Talking wrapper in Erlang.
2. Create a useable microservice in Erlang.

References

For more information on this topic you can checkout the following amazing posts:

1. Learn You Some Erlang For Greater Good
2. 100 days of code