Lisp Flavoured Erlang (AKA LFE) combine the robustness and concurrency of Erlang with the flexibility and power of a Lisp syntax.
LFE is a programming language that uses Lisp syntax as a front-end for the Erlang compiler. This means you can write code in LFE that works seamlessly within the Erlang ecosystem, taking full advantage of Erlang's powerful features. But what makes LFE stand out is its ability to mix the concise and expressive nature of Lisp with Erlang's proven capabilities.
LFE is useful in applications that require the robustness and concurrency handling of Erlang, combined with the flexibility of a Lisp-family language.
LFE is classified as a Lisp-2, which means it has separate evaluation rules for functions and arguments. This design allows for more sophisticated function definitions and greater flexibility in code structure. Moreover, LFE supports polymorphic function definitions, as Erlang does.
LFE predates Elixir and was created by Robert Virding, one of the original developers of Erlang. With strong influences from Common Lisp, LFE is built on a foundation of decades of programming language development.