Should I learn Elixir or Erlang (or both)?

Question

I read on the Elixir site that sooner or later a developer will want to include Erlang libs into their Elixir projects. Why would this be? Are there things that can only be done in Erlang?

I'd be just as happy learning Erlang instead of Elixir. Are there core things available in Elixir but not in Erlang?

related [question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37964709/are-there-things-elixir-can-do-that-erlang-cannot-or-vice-versa) ,probably will be interesting — , Jul 12 '16 at 13:52

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 12 '16 at 11:26

Both languages are Turing-complete, so there's nothing that can be done in one and not in the other. The difference between the two is in the syntax.

Elixir developers use Erlang libraries because there are some excellent Erlang libraries out there and one of the advantages of living on the BEAM (Erlang VM) is that interoperability. (Just like how JVM languages get access to the vast array of Java libraries.) The most prominent example is Phoenix (popular Elixir web framework) using Cowboy (popular Erlang web server).

As Elixir continues to grow, you'll see more of the reverse, too: Erlang developers grabbing a useful Elixir library to use.

You can see packages for both languages (and they're all useable by both languages) at https://hex.pm

I'd like to add that in Elixir is easier to do meta-programming. In Erlang is a bit awkward. — Alex de Sousa, Jul 12 '16 at 12:16

Should I learn Elixir or Erlang (or both)?

1 Answers1