Question 1

How do I enforce this Elixir style guide in my project?

Accepted Answer

You'll need to integrate external tools like Credo for linting and ensure team adoption through code reviews. The guide itself doesn't provide automation, so set up Credo with custom rules based on the guidelines, such as avoiding needless pipelines or enforcing naming conventions.

Question 2

What's the difference between this style guide and the official Elixir guidelines?

Accepted Answer

This guide is more opinionated and comprehensive, covering specific conventions like predicate function naming with '?' and pipeline best practices. Official resources from the Elixir Core Team are often less prescriptive and focus on broader idiomatic patterns rather than detailed stylistic rules.

Question 3

When should I use pipelines vs nested function calls in Elixir?

Accepted Answer

The guide recommends using the pipeline operator for chaining function calls to improve readability, but warns against 'needless pipelines' for single operations. Use pipelines for multi-step transformations, as shown in the examples, but avoid them for simple calls like String.strip(input).

Question 4

How to name exceptions according to the Elixir style guide?

Accepted Answer

Exception names should end with 'Error', such as ResponseError, and error messages should be non-capitalized without trailing punctuation. For example, raise ArgumentError, 'malformed payload' is preferred over 'Malformed payload.'

Question 5

Does this style guide cover Phoenix or Ecto-specific conventions?

Accepted Answer

No, it focuses on general Elixir coding practices like naming, formatting, and module organization. For framework-specific guidelines, you'll need to consult additional resources, as it doesn't address Phoenix controllers, Ecto schemas, or other domain-specific patterns.

Question 6

How to handle comments in Elixir code based on this guide?

Accepted Answer

Use comments sparingly and only for critical details like algorithm explanations or business rules, avoiding superfluous ones. The guide quotes Russ Olsen: 'good code is like a good joke: It needs no explanation,' and provides examples like not commenting obvious function calls.

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