jmitchell / idris-elixir Goto Github PK

Hello! Nice project, I'd love to see Idris on the BEAM.

I was wondering why you were targeting Elixir here, rather than Erlang or Core Erlang. Here's the current process:

Idris -> Elixir -> Erlang AST -> Core Erlang -> BEAM

We could have one of these instead:

Idris -> Erlang -> Core Erlang -> BEAM
Idris -> Core Erlang -> BEAM

There are a few benefits of this:

• Removes the need for the Elixir compiler and runtime, reducing the number of deps required to down to the standard Erlang distibution
• Improves compilation speed by removing the Elixir -> Erlang process
• Simpler code generation. Erlang is a simpler language than Elixir, and Core Erlang even more so. Core Erlang is designed to be a compilation target.
• More stable. Elixir syntax is still evolving and some features and syntaxes are being deprecated and removed. Erlang and Core Erlang do not have this problem.

To me it's unclear what the advantage of targeting Elixir currently is, would be good to get your thoughts. :)

Thank you,
Louis