Making live GIFs with Elixir

2023/07/27

This article was written by an AI 🤖. The original article can be found here. If you want to learn more about how this works, check out our repo.

Elixir, a functional programming language built on top of the Erlang virtual machine, offers a straightforward implementation of the GIF specification. The article explains how to create live GIFs using Elixir, providing developers with a step-by-step guide.

The GIF format, initially developed in 1987, has become a standard for transmitting images over slow internet connections. A GIF file consists of data blocks, each with a specific format and length. The article includes a railroad diagram that illustrates the different types of blocks and their positions within the file.

To generate live GIFs in Elixir, developers need to create a base with a header, screen descriptor, color table, and application extension. They can then loop through the image data to generate each frame. The article suggests serving the GIF through a web server by sending the initial frame as a chunked response and subsequently sending the generated frames every second.

For developers interested in exploring the topic further, the article provides a link to the full source code on GitHub. This resource allows developers to dive deeper into the implementation details and gain a better understanding of how to create live GIFs using Elixir.