Getting started programming with Elixir is straightforward. In this post we’ll be describing the main milestones you need to have a productive environment and linking out to various resources to get setup.

Ingredients

  • Elixir 1.10+ elixir --version
  • PostgreSQL 10+ psql --version
  • Node.js 14+ node --version

Assumptions

If you are new to programming entirely, you may find this article brief so if you need additional help, here’s a couple of basic guides that can help:

Elixir

You can learn how to install Elixir on your operating system at https://elixir-lang.org/install.html, following that guide should get you setup with Erlang & Elixir. You can verify they are installed by doing elixir --version on the command line.

Local Hex Install

Erlang & Elixir use a powerful package management system called Hex, you can install it locally by running the local.hex command in Mix. Mix is Elixir’s build tool, and comes standard with Elixir.

$ mix local.hex

Local Phoenix Install

You can install a local Phoenix installer that will help you bootstrap new projects that you want to make.

$ mix archive.install hex phx_new

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a powerful SQL database engine, it’s optional overall for apps however many Elixir shops end up using it for it’s speed & stability. It’s also well integrated with the database wrapper Ecto, which is standard in most Phoenix installs.

You can learn about installing PostgreSQL from their official website at https://www.postgresql.org/download/.

Verifying Setup

You’ll need to be able to access your local database on the command line or via whatever tool you prefer.

# Running psql should open up a database shell
$ psql 
psql (13.1)
Type "help" for help.

your_username=#

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code, otherwise known as VSCode is a powerful and lightweight editor from Microsoft. You can use it to efficiently work with most any programming language or text-based file.

You can download & install Visual Studio Code from their website https://code.visualstudio.com/Download.

By default VSCode is already pretty powerful, however you can turbocharge it by installing some of these recommended extensions. It’s worth browsing their extension marketplace as almost every single helpful tool is published there.

  • ElixirLS: Elixir support and debugger

    ElixirLS installs a local language server & debugger for Elixir applications. Installing this extension will give you auto completion, warnings, debugging, go-to-definition, and more for any type of Elixir program.