162: Elixir to WebAssembly with Orb

WebAssembly is an interesting technology that feels completely separate from Elixir. Patrick Smith created an Elixir project called Orb, an Elixir DSL for WebAssembly. He also shows how a WebAssembly component can play a meaningful role in a LiveView page! We talk more about what WebAssembly is, the promise for the technology, how it can improve UX, and where Patrick sees real practical applications for Elixir developers.

Show Notes online - http://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/162

Elixir Community News

• https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix_live_view/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md – Phoenix LiveView released v0.19.5
• https://twitter.com/josevalim/status/1681719691503386632 – Will the Elixir type system make it harder for beginners?
• https://twitter.com/wojtekmach/status/1683468212975939585 – New Req feature that makes it easy to stream a response.
• https://andrealeopardi.com/posts/breakdown-of-http-clients-in-elixir/ – Andrea Leopardi wrote a helpful post about HTTP clients in Elixir.
• https://www.thestackcanary.com/from-python-pytorch-to-elixir-nx/ – An article titled “From Python to Elixir Machine Learning” has been getting some attention recently about moving from Python PyTorch to Elixir-Nx.
• https://twitter.com/sean_moriarity/status/1681422911763107841 – Sean Moriarity's book "Machine Learning in Elixir" is now in beta
• https://podcast.thinkingelixir.com/154 – Previous interview with Sean Moriarity - Serving Up AI with Sean Moriarity
• https://pragprog.com/titles/smelixir/machine-learning-in-elixir/ – Machine Learning in Elixir book
• https://twitter.com/ElixirMembrane/status/1679129777490280449 – The Membrane Framework announced they are planning a conference in October.
• https://rtcon.live/ – Membrane Framework conference will be October 12-14 in Krakow Poland.
• https://twitter.com/IScottMing/status/1682307757695979521 – Lexical LSP now supports Elixir 1.15
• https://github.com/lexical-lsp/lexical/issues/244 – Github issue for tracking Lexical LSP and OTP 26 support
• https://paraxial.io/blog/still-safe – Michael Lubas wrote a new security blog post about Elixir in response to a research paper.

Do you have some Elixir news to share? Tell us at @ThinkingElixir or email at show@thinkingelixir.com

Discussion Resources

• https://twitter.com/royalicing/status/1671689512685301762 – Orb, a friendly DSL for WebAssembly
• https://icing.space/2023/introducing-orb
• https://hexdocs.pm/orb/Orb.html
• https://github.com/RoyalIcing/Orb – Orb Github project
• https://calculated.world/
• https://icing.space/2023/how-is-a-webassembly-module-like-a-ruby-class
• https://dockyard.com/blog/2022/09/01/dockyard-r-d-firefly-optimizes-your-elixir-compilation
• https://getfirefly.org/ – Firefly project
• https://github.com/GetFirefly/firefly – Firefly Github project
• https://www.figma.com/blog/webassembly-cut-figmas-load-time-by-3x/
• https://www.figma.com/
• https://github.com/RoyalIcing/OrbWasmtime
• https://hex.pm/packages/rustler
• https://github.com/viniarck/wasmtime-ex
• https://github.com/tessi/wasmex
• https://github.com/christhekeele/matcha
• https://components.guide/color
• https://github.com/grych/drab

Guest Information

• https://twitter.com/royalicing – on Twitter
• https://github.com/royalicing/ – on Github
• https://hachyderm.io/@royalicing – on Fediverse
• https://icing.space/ – Blog

Find us online

• Message the show - @ThinkingElixir
• Message the show on Fediverse - @ThinkingElixir@genserver.social
• Email the show - show@thinkingelixir.com
• Mark Ericksen - @brainlid
• Mark Ericksen on Fediverse - @brainlid@genserver.social
• David Bernheisel - @bernheisel
• David Bernheisel on Fediverse - @dbern@genserver.social
• Cade Ward - @cadebward
• Cade Ward on Fediverse - @cadebward@genserver.social

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