Learning Elixir better through Collaboration and Giving Back

This talk is basically about my experience of Learning Elixir as a beginner to the language. In the talk, I've also made an attempt to highlight how the journey of learning Elixir has given me opportunities to contribute back to the Elixir community even as a beginner to the language.

I had given this talk at the Singapore Elixir Meetup in January 2018. Thanks to the awesome folks of behind https://engineers.sg/, the video related to this talk is present here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFfw1Iy9BxM

Transcript

1. Learning Elixir Better Through Collaboration and Giving Back
2. Many resources out there Learning a new language with so many resources out there can get overwhelming
3. Learning a new language can be challenging and fun The journey of learning a new language can be - thrilling and deeply uncomfortable
4. We are hiring!
5. • Learning by Reading ◦ Programming Elixir 1.3 by Dave Thomas ▪ Explained concepts nicely with small examples of how one concept can be applied in different ways ▪ Read only first few chapters ◦ Official Getting Started Guides ▪ Read more chapters from these guides ▪ Concise and to the point How I started learning Elixir? Official Getting Started Guides
6. • Learning By Doing ◦ Why learn this way? ▪ Easier to understand ▪ Closer connect to real world problems ▪ Learn Multiple concepts at one time How I started learning Elixir better? Recently posted by a user on elixirforum.com - This was me
7. • Learning By Doing(contd.) ◦ What were my learning goals? ▪ Get confident • I’m approaching problem solving in the right way • Applying the right concepts to solve a given problem ▪ Being able to • Make and Track regular progress as a beginner • Connect underlying concepts with real world problems • To write idiomatic Elixir code • To apply multiple concepts to solve a given problem • Compare my solutions to others in order to identify areas of improvement How I started learning Elixir better?
8. • Learning By Doing(contd.) ◦ How could I possibly do it better? ▪ Collaboration using a combination of platforms like • Exercism How I started learning Elixir better? How can Exercism.io help you learn better?
9. • Some of the other platforms to help with learning Elixir better • elixirforum.com ◦ Uses Discourse - by Jeff Atwood(co-founded Stackoverflow), Sam Saffron and Robin Ward • elixir-lang slack - you can get your invite here How I started learning Elixir better?
10. • The classical introductory exercise to any new programming language ‘Hello World’ in Elixir Sample Failing test case that we have to make pass Sample script in which we have to write code to pass the failing ‘Hello World’ related test ‘Hello World’ solution that makes use of Default Arguments
11. Documentation was confusing wrt usage of Default Arguments Gave some Context as a beginner on why the usage of IO.puts as part the Default Arguments was confusing
12. Hello World exercise led to my initial contributions to Elixir Backed up my proposal with an example on how we could do without ‘IO.puts’
13. • Jose Valim shared some context on why IO.puts was added earlier and acknowledged that it could be more confusing PR contribution by a total beginner Jose Valim clarifying the intention behind why IO.puts was used in the first place
14. PR sent to make the Default arguments documentation clear Pull Request Merged
15. • Exercise 1 - Gigasecond ◦ Problem Statement ▪ Given a particular date ▪ Calculate the moment when someone has lived for 10^9 seconds(Approx. 31.70 years) Solving the Gigasecond exercise on Exercism My initial solution to the Gigasecond exercise A sample test case wrt the Gigasecond exercise
16. • Learnings from the Gigasecond ◦ Learnings through conversations around the solution ▪ Unlearning from some of our past habits of solving problem in a particular way ▪ Thinking Functionally about problem solving Unlearning imperative style of problem solving Discussion about a different way of representing constants and the usage of pipe operator
17. • Gigasecond ◦ Summary of Learnings from one exercise ▪ Different ways of representing a constant in Elixir ▪ How to call Erlang specific code in Elixir ▪ Replace usage of variables with a Pipe operator ▪ Pipe Operator - What’s the bigger picture? • A series of transformations on data Learnings from solving the Gigasecond exercise Final Solution => Initial Solution =>
18. • Exercise 2 - Bob ◦ Problem Statement ▪ Bob is a lackadaisical(lacking enthusiasm and determination) teenager. ▪ In conversation, his responses are very limited. ▪ Bob’s responses usually are: • 'Sure.' if you ask him a question. • 'Whoa, chill out!' if you yell at him. • 'Fine. Be that way!' if you address him without actually saying anything. • 'Whatever.' to anything else. ◦ Test “shouting in Russian” - Place where I got stuck wrt the Bob exercise Solving the Bob exercise on Exercism
19. • Exercise 2 - Bob ◦ Enter elixirforum.com Learnings from solving some of the other Elixir exercises Another user asking about a similar question on the same exercise
20. • Exercise 2 - Bob ◦ Solving the Bob Exercise using Exercism & Elixir Forum How different pieces fit together - Exercism & Elixir Forum The suggestion The test case that needed to be checked against all letters being uppercase The suggestion in IEx The solution
21. • Exercise 2 - Bob How different pieces fit together - Exercism & Elixir Forum Applying the suggestions on elixirforum to my solution
22. • Exercise 2 - Bob ◦ The solution could still be improved further using Typespecs! Can the solution be improved any further? My initial solution on Exercism A solution that involved usage of typespecs Explained via a comment(wrt my solution) on Exercism what led to my curiosity to explore typespecs further
23. • Exercise 2 - Bob ◦ Discussed importance of typespecs in the #beginners channel ▪ Has over 2700 members! How different pieces fit together - Exercism, Elixir Slack Wrote a blog post based on the learnings discussed via slack
24. • Exercise 2 - Bob ◦ My final solution Used Exercism, Elixir forum & Slack to improve my solution
25. • Exercise 3 - Word Count ◦ Problem Statement ▪ Given a phrase, count the occurrences of each word in that phrase. ◦ This is a good exercise to get more into Functional Programming, let’s see how ◦ Thought Process ▪ At a high level I knew that I wanted a key value pair with • Key being the ‘word’ • Value being the ‘count’ wrt the word ▪ Drawing Parallels between Enumerable module of Ruby and Elixir Solving the Word count exercise on Exercism One of the test cases as part of the word count exercise
26. • Exercise 3 - Word Count ◦ This exercise was a good way to get more into Functional Programming ▪ This was pretty much me Solving the Word count exercise on Exercism A question asked on how to loop through a map in Elixir
27. • Exercise 3 - Word Count ◦ This exercise was a good way to learn more about how to use Map & Reduce in Functional Programming ▪ This was pretty much me Solving the Word count exercise on Exercism This was answered on StackOveflow by the creator of Elixir - José Valim
28. • Exercise 3 - Word Count ◦ Identified the appropriate gaps in documentation and sent a PR to fix this Sent a PR to further clarify how to use Reduce in Elixir This was answered on StackOveflow by the creator of Elixir - José Valim
29. • Exercise 3 - Word Count ◦ Ebert Bot collaborating on the Exercism Word Count Exercise PR submitted on Github Did you Know? - Bots can Collaborate too! Ebert Bot offers a valuable suggestion via Credo to help one write better Elixir code
30. Let’s take a step back
31. Take up exercises that help you learn specific concepts
32. • Exercise 3 - Sublist ◦ Problem Statement ▪ Given two lists determine if • The first list is contained within the second • The second list is contained within the first list • Both lists are contained within each other • If none of these are true ▪ A challenging problem that really tested me ▪ Thought Process • Approach 1 - Trying to check if one list is a subset of another list • Found out that there’s a functional called MapSet.subset ◦ The Catch ▪ Mapset’s subset function doesn't take into account the order or duplicate items Solving the Sublist count exercise on Exercism The sublist exercise related test case for which Mapset’s subset function did not pass
33. • Exercise 3 - Sublist ◦ Thought Process ▪ Approach 2 - Find the difference between two lists ▪ Make use of ‘--’ to find the difference between lists • The Catch ◦ This didn’t work for the recurring values unequal related test ◦ Test for huge sublist not in huge list took too long to execute ▪ Decided not to wait for it Solving the Sublist count exercise on Exercism In Elixir it finds the difference between the lists on a per element basis
34. Impostor Syndrome & The feeling of being stuck
35. Found a similar solution where somebody was stuck at the same place Huge sublist not in huge list related test case
36. The Hint on how to deal with the huge sublist test case
37. Let’s take another step back
38. • Have you a. honestly tried fixing things yourself b. found ways to get unstuck c. fast enough at getting unstuck so that you could keep moving forward? d. identified the missing gaps between your thought process and that of others? • It’s completely ok to go ahead and ask for hints on Exercism Looking Beyond Impostor Syndrome - Lessons Learnt from the sublist exercise This is not Impostor Syndrome, this is Reality.
39. • Currently working on adding a Debugging Chapter as part of the Getting Started guides on elixir-lang site Sublist exercise made me realize - A missing debugging chapter
40. Sublist exercise on Exercism helped me to be better programmer
41. Comparing my solutions to others helped me write better Elixir code Other Exercism users discussing what their takeaways from another user’s solution
42. Sublist exercise - my final solution
43. • ElixirForum ◦ Some of the different categories under which people post questions @ https://elixirforum.com/ Some of the ways through which Elixir Forum can be helpful
44. • ElixirForum ◦ Some of the questions around learning Elixir that people have asked Some of the ways through which Elixir Forum can be helpful The possibilities one can leverage with ElixirForum
45. • Elixir Lang Slack ◦ The Elixir Lang Slack is super useful especially when you are getting started ◦ One can also see older conversations on some channels via - http://elixir-lang.slackarchive.io • Some of the Popular Elixir Lang Slack Channels include: Some of the ways through which Elixir Slack can be helpful
46. Challenging FP concepts for people from a non FP background
47. • Some Options: • Try some of the exercises in the Elixir Track on Exercism ◦ Kick off a conversation by explaining your thought process • Other resources one can try ▪ Advent of Code ▪ Elixir Koans ▪ Dave Thomas’ video series on Elixir for Programmers Next Steps? A user on Elixir Forum sharing his experience with trying out Dave’s online course A user shared his learnings on the #adventofcode channel of Elixir Lang Slack
48. Takeaways
49. You can contribute to Elixir even as a beginner • The importance of contributing documentation Jose Valim encourages and supports Documentation related PR’s The Bigger Picture - Why write good docs?
50. The power of Collaborative Learning
51. Takeaways • Elixir community is very approachable for beginners ◦ Actively engage with the community to make the most of it! • Just like how life is about small things ◦ Do smaller problems ◦ Use platforms like Exercism that provide countless small wins. • If using Exercism ◦ Be proactive and have conversations explaining your thought process behind each of your solutions ◦ Make use of hints ◦ You can learn a lot just from seeing other people’s solutions ◦ Ask for help or feedback on elixirforum.com, #beginners or #exercism channel on elixir-lang slack • Believe in Yourself • Give Back - You can contribute to Adoption of elixir even as beginner to the language! ◦ It’s about connecting the dots, finding gaps • Collaboration can be in the passive form as well
52. Keep Having a Beginner’s Mind! Benjamin Tan Wei Hao - Author of The Little Elixir & OTP Guidebook
53. Credits • Image Credits ◦ Are your ramping up in a new langauge ◦ Many resources out there ◦ Being Stuck ◦ From Not Knowing to Knowing • Review credits ◦ Anil Thaplar for some good feedback around my slides
54. Thank You and Feel Free to Get in touch! Mohnish G Jadwani Twitter @mohnishgj Github boddhisattva Blog medium.com/@mohnishgj Site http://www.mohnishjadwani.com/ Gmail mohnishgj