Exploring the Elixir Ecosystem Testing, Benchmarking and Profiling

Abstract

The success of a new programming language is to a large extent determined by the quality of its ecosystem. Among the most important parts of any given ecosystem are tools for testing, benchmarking and profiling code. This paper explores the tools available for Elixir, a new language targeting the Erlang virtual machine. A hands-on approach is used, by using these tools to develop and incrementally improve a fast Fourier transform algorithm. The final goal is a fast Fourier transform implementation fast enough for a real-time vocoder. Between the first and the last iteration a ten-fold increase in speed is achieved. While it is still not fast enough for a real-time vocoder, it demonstrates the utility of the development tools available in the Elixir ecosystem.