I am building an application which compiles new functions based on user input. For performance reasons, I would like to compile each function separately since there will be a large quantity of functions which can change individually. I already have the application working with Module.create and :ets lookups for the modules; however, I know that the design is not ideal since the module names are dynamic. This means I am creating atoms based on user input which is obviously bad.

From what I can tell, there is no way to recompile only a piece of a module which requires me to separate out the functions. I would like to avoid polluting the atom table in this way so I have come up with a possible solution.

My current idea is to create a registry process which assigns atoms to functions which they can use for their modules. As functions are removed, the atom it was assigned would be freed for the next created function to use. This way I will limit the atoms I use to the most atoms I used at any one point in time. I know entirely how I would build this but I would love to find a more elegant way of doing it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.