Getting Started Gleam Programming Language using asdf

Gleam is a programming language for building concurrent and distributed systems. It is designed to be expressive, safe, and efficient. It’s a statically typed language, meaning that the type of every value in a Gleam program must be known at compile-time. Gleam also has a strong type system, which helps to prevent runtime errors and makes it easier to reason about the correctness of a program.

Gleam is built on top of Rust and Erlang virtual machine (VM), which is known for its excellent support for concurrency and distribution. It’s takes advantage of the Erlang VM’s capabilities to provide a high-level, easy-to-use language for building distributed systems. Gleam also integrates with the Erlang ecosystem, allowing Gleam programs to make use of existing Erlang libraries and tools.

Some of the key features of Gleam include:

• Static typing: Gleam uses a static type system to catch errors at compile time, making it easier to build correct and reliable systems.
• Concurrent programming: Gleam has built-in support for concurrent programming, making it easy to write programs that can take advantage of multiple processors or cores.
• Fault tolerance: Gleam is designed to be fault-tolerant, with support for features like automatic process restart and distribution over a cluster of machines.
• Interoperability: Gleam is designed to be easy to integrate with other languages and systems, including the ability to call Erlang and Elixir functions directly from Gleam code.
• Efficient execution: Gleam is built on top of the BEAM, which is known for its efficient execution and ability to handle high loads.

To create a Gleam programming project, you will need to install Erlang on your machine. Here are the steps you can follow:

• Install asdf version manager
• Install the Erlang runtime environment on your local machine, see my previous post

• Install the Gleam compiler by running the following command in your terminal:

  $ asdf plugin-add gleam
  

• Check the latest version or version you’ll want to install

  $ asdf list-all gleam
  

• Install gleam

  $ asdf install gleam 0.25.3
  

• Set version as global

  $ gleam asdf global gleam 0.25.3
  

• Verify that the Gleam compiler has been installed correctly by running the following command in your terminal:

  $ gleam -V
  

• Create a new directory for your Gleam project and navigate to it using the cd command. Initialize a new Gleam project by running the following command in your terminal:

  $ gleam new --name hello_gleam hello-gleam

• Open the src/hello_gleam.gleam file in a text editor and start writing your Gleam code.

• To build and run your Gleam project, use the following command:

  $ gleam build && gleam run
    
  

This will build your Gleam project and run the resulting executable.