The Elixir Wizards and Thinking Elixir podcasts join forces to bring you a special hype-isode for ElixirConf 2024 in Orlando, Florida. Hosts Owen, Sundi, David, and Mark discuss their favorite moments from past conferences and offer a sneak peek into what this year's event has in store. From insightful training classes to thought-provoking talks on topics like LiveView, data processing, Nerves, and machine learning—there's something for every Elixirist and Elixir-curious software developer. In this episode, we share tips on making the most of the conference, whether you're there to network, le ..read more

In Office Hours Episode 10, SmartLogic’s newest developers, Emma Whamond and Micaela Cunha, join Elixir Wizard Owen Bickford to discuss their onboarding experiences, joining a new engineering team, and navigating an unfamiliar codebase. They share tips and challenges on learning new programming languages like Ruby and Elixir while ramping up for active client projects. Emma and Micaela emphasize the value of starting with tests and seeking guidance from teammates when diving into unfamiliar projects. Our guests provide valuable guidance for anyone navigating the transition into a new software ..read more

In Elixir Wizards Office Hours Episode 8, hosts Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford lead an engaging Q&A session with co-host Dan Ivovich, diving deep into the nuances of DevOps. Drawing from his extensive experience, Dan navigates topics from the early days before Docker to managing diverse polyglot environments and optimizing observability. This episode offers insights for developers of all levels looking to sharpen their DevOps skills. Explore the realms of Docker, containerization, DevOps workflows, and the deployment intricacies of Elixir applications. Key topics discussed in this episode ..read more

In Episode 7 of Elixir Wizards Office Hours, SmartLogic Engineers Joel Meador and Charles Suggs join host Owen Bickford to tackle the often tricky task of adding print functionality to web applications. They discuss their recent experiences with browser-based printing and the hurdles of cross-browser compatibility, consistent styling, and dynamic content generation, such as headers and footers. The trio delves into the limitations of current printing capabilities in browsers, the potential of server-side PDF generation, and the necessity of juggling separate templates for web and print. They a ..read more

In Office Hours Episode 6, SmartLogic Developers Anna Dorigo and Bilal Hankins join Elixir Wizards Sundi and Dan to discuss their experiences maintaining a decade-old Ruby on Rails codebase. They delve into the critical importance of deeply understanding the codebase, keeping dependencies current, and adapting to the original application's evolving priorities and design choices. The conversation spans a range of topics, including accessibility, testing, monitoring, and the challenges of deploying database migrations in production environments. The guests share effective strategies for sustaini ..read more

In today's episode, Elixir Wizards Owen and Dan delve into the complexities of building advanced reporting features within software applications. They share personal insights and challenges encountered while developing reporting solutions for user-generated data, leveraging both Elixir/Phoenix and Ruby on Rails. The discussion zeroes in on crucial data modeling and architectural decisions that enhance reporting efficiency and flexibility. Owen and Dan explore tactics like materialized views, event sourcing, and database triggers to optimize data handling while being mindful of UX elements like ..read more

In Elixir Wizards Office Hours Episode 4, SmartLogic Product Designer Ava Slivkoff joins hosts Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford to discuss the product designer's role in software development. Ava shares her experience navigating client expectations, software design principles, and technical constraints. They explore the integration of design and development workflows and how designers and engineers can collaborate to meet a project's specific needs. The conversation emphasizes the value of cross-functional teams and the synergy that can arise when all team members work in harmony to bring a produ ..read more

In Elixir Wizards Office Hours Episode 2, "Discovery Discoveries," SmartLogic's Project Manager Alicia Brindisi and VP of Delivery Bri LaVorgna join Elixir Wizards Sundi Myint and Owen Bickford on an exploratory journey through the discovery phase of the software development lifecycle. This episode highlights how collaboration and communication transform the client-project team dynamic into a customized expedition. The goal of discovery is to reveal clear business goals, understand the end user, pinpoint key project objectives, and meticulously document the path forward in a Product Requiremen ..read more

The Elixir Wizards Podcast is back with Season 12 Office Hours, where we talk with the internal SmartLogic team about the stages of the software development lifecycle. For the season premiere, "Testing 1, 2, 3," Joel Meador and Charles Suggs join us to discuss the nuances of software testing. In this episode, we discuss everything from testing philosophies to test driven development (TDD), integration, and end-user testing. Our guests share real-world experiences that highlight the benefits of thorough testing, challenges like test maintenance, and problem-solving for complex production enviro ..read more

For the final episode of Elixir Wizards’ Season 11 “Branching Out from Elixir,” we’re featuring a recent discussion from the Software Unscripted podcast. In this conversation, José Valim, creator of Elixir, interviews Richard Feldman, creator of Roc. They compare notes on the process and considerations for creating a language. This episode covers the origins of creating a language, its influences, and how goals shape the tradeoffs in programming language design. José and Richard share anecdotes from their experiences guiding the evolution of Elixir and Roc. The discussion provides an insightfu ..read more