This application provides TUPLE.deftuple/2 and TUPLE.deftuplep/2
macros similar to Record.defrecord/3 and Record.defrecordp/3
macros. The only difference is that TUPLE.deftuple/2 and
TUPLE.deftuplep/2 do not introduce a tag (atom) as the first
element in a resulting tuple data.
The advantage of having alternate API (featured with named tuple elements) when comparing to literal syntax of tuples becomes apparent when a tuple has more elements and/or its arity or structure changes over time in a complex code.
Defining such "tag-less records" may seem odd, but it has at least one notable use case (you may find others): in ETS table to store tuples of different shapes where the key typically consists of a fixed tag (to identify shape) and variable part(s) (to differentiate instances). In such heterogenic ETS tables there's also a place for use of records when singular instances are appropriate (e.g. to hold "global" counters).
The code that forms TUPLE module has been extracted from Tuple module on deftuple branch of (forked) Elixir repo.
API was proposed on elixir-core mailing list, but the proposal, at least for now, was rejected.