Meryl Dakin on Token Alchemist – Elixir Internals

Today on the show we continue our series on the inner workings of several different Elixir libraries and are happy to be joined by Meryl Dakin, Software Engineer at the Flatiron School and author of Token Alchemist. In this episode, we discover how Meryl got started with Elixir and what the process was like for her transitioning from Ruby to Elixir. We learn more about the internal functions of Token Alchemist within the school context and discuss the unique opportunities Meryl has discovered in Elixir, as well as the trickier language features that programmers are likely to experience in their learning process. Meryl also shares the challenges that Token Alchemist attempts to overcome – delving deeper into LTI, the Learn.co platform, OAuth and JSON. For all this and more, be sure to click play!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Discover why Meryl first got started with Elixir.
• Learn more about the Flatiron Bootcamp for coders.
• Meryl’s experience in transitioning from Ruby to Elixir.
• The opportunities for concurrency and fault tolerance in Elixir.
• Discover the top three tricky language features in Elixir.
• The benefits of going back to the basics of Elixir.
• Find out the problems that Token Alchemist attempts to solve.
• Meryl explains LTI and the Learn.co platform for students.
• Learn more about custom parameters in Token Alchemist.
• The process of learning OAuth in Token Alchemist.
• What to consider when using LTI in Elixir.
• The benefits of resource link history ID’s in the LTI spec.
• Opportunities for you with Token Alchemist.
• And much more!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

We Work — https://www.wework.com/
Flatiron School — https://flatironschool.com/
Elixir — https://elixir-lang.org/
Ruby — https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
Learn.co — https://learn.co/
Meryl on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/meryldakin/
Meryl on Twitter — https://twitter.com/meryldakin
Meryl on GitHub — https://github.com/meryldakin
Token Alchemist on GitHub — https://github.com/meryldakin/token_alchemist

Learn more about how SmartLogic uses Phoenix and Elixir.

Special Guest: Meryl Dakin.