LFE (Lisp Flavoured Erlang) - have you used it?

LFE Forum LFE Chat
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If so, where/how and what do you like about it? :003:

Created by @rvirding :smiley:

LFE is a Lisp-2+ written for the Erlang VM, providing 100% compatibility with Core Erlang. It is a proper, functional dialect of Lisp with a REPL and macros, as well as features inherited from Erlang, such as pattern pattern matching. Importantly, LFE boasts seamless interoperability with Erlang and the BEAM ecosystem of libraries. It not only has been used in stable production applications since 2015, it has also been employed by start-ups as their differentiating tech. LFE is flexible enough to be everything from your go-to scripting solution to your preferred syntax for massively scalable, soft-real time services.

LFE is not a casual Lisp. It’s a Lisp for those who want to build distributed applications – like the Erlang software that powers 40% of the world’s telecommunications.

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I shall use it in the future.

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I hope we’ll get to hear more about LFE from @rvirding himself - especially now we have a whole forum/section dedicated to it :003:

→ https://erlangforums.com/lfe :smiley:

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Well, I am most definitely here if you have questions about LFE or if there is anything you would like me to talk about.

(No known bugs :wink:)

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I’m following the LFE official tutorial for last 2 hours and I’m loving it.

I’m using Ayu Dark theme with VSCode’s bracket pair colorization enabled and VSCode LFE Workbench extension by Prokopiy N. Stelmash.

Bracket pair colorization works great with a dark theme like Ayu Dark or Monokai.

Screenshot 2021-10-27 at 12.26.07 PM
Screenshot 2021-10-27 at 12.26.07 PM1276×754 42.5 KB

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Thank you @rvirding! :heart:

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That’s a nice theme DG! Certainly makes deciphering those brackets easier :lol:

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After programming lisp for a while you find you don’t really need to count parentheses you just “see” if they are right. Though I will admit that matching parentheses and colour does help. :wink:

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I reckon it could even be seen as a feature :003:

You could have a lot of fun with a few colour tweaks:

4cb905fe2e16f4a9a49ca200427049b43809ce22_2_517x305

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Now it looks more beautiful! :slight_smile:

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Looks like I already started to embrace parentheses. :slight_smile:

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Definitely gonna try this out!

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Didn’t knew Exercism got an LFE track!

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Nor did I so I have no idea how it is. I will have to try it and see what I have done. :smile: Does anyone have any general comment on how they are?

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Well, they are quite nice. I do some mentoring on Elixir/Erlang/Swift in my spare time.
You can join and be a mentor too if you got some time.

On this V3 of the platform, they have added a “Syllabus” option. Which gives you a path to learn by doing on-purpose exercises rather than just picking one randomly. Kinda nice.

Unfortunately, Erlang and LFE lack this “Syllabus” feature.

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It will be great if you improve current exercises and add a few more. It will help LFE get traction, because Exercism is very famous.

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Another thing you could do Robert (if you haven’t already) is add a link to the LFE forum here on your website https://erlangforums.com/lfe :003:

Better still, try to direct all discussions/chat about LFE here - because you get much more long term value and exposure on platforms like this as each thread adds up and sticks around even for people checking out the community a couple of months or years down the line, whereas discussions in a chat room are only really seen by the people there and then.

All this helps create ‘buzz and activity’ around a language and the more vibrant the community appears to people (first impressions matter) the more attractive it is to them. This is something we put to great use on the Elixir Forum (but no pressure :lol: just do what you feel works best for you :blush:).

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@rvirding We’re greatful that you’re active in these forums. :heart:

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Sorry to bother with some off-topic, but as you mentioned “anything”
 :smiley:
What were you doing with the model railroad in the picture at LFE Blog - An Interview with Robert Virding on Lisp ?

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Monokai Charcoal High contrast extension has 8 themes. I like the purple variant more.

If you’re using Monokai, or one of the Monokai Charcoal High contrast themes, following is the setting for getting rid of the underlines under the operators.

{
  "editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
    "textMateRules": [
      { // remov underlines from operators in LFE
        "scope": "entity.name.class",
        "settings": {
          "fontStyle": ""
        }
      },
    ]
  }
}
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