A Case for Erlang

http://metalinguist.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/case-for-erlang/

by jcwentz • 19 years ago

4 9 19 years ago

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Alex3917• 19 years ago

I've spent the last couple weeks teaching myself Erlang. The Programming Erlang book that comes out in two weeks is pretty good, and the folks in #erlang have also been helpful. The syntax is generally simple and memorable enough that you won't forget how it works if you take a week off from hacking. All in all it is pretty easy to learn.

I haven't written a huge volume of code yet, although that is partly because the language is so powerful that a lot of programs are only two or three lines long. For example, there is a function that iterates through a list one element at a time, applies a function to that element, and then outputs a new list as a result. This means that 95% of the text processing I've done has just been using this one line code snippet. (This works because strings are treated internally as lists, so you iterate through the string one char at a time.)

I'm not a hacker so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but so far so good.

tuukkah• 19 years ago

This special function is called map in other languages too :-) Next thing you notice you're using folds...

henning3• 19 years ago

If anyone tells you Erlang isn't proven and isn't "ready for prime time," punch them in the face. Hard.

pg• 19 years ago

Instead I'd write a successful application in it. Usually showing people they're wrong is more effective than telling them so.

henning3• 19 years ago

You can prove them wrong as many times as you want and if your language isn't spelled J-A-V-A or C-# then it doesn't matter how many 9s of uptime you can easily achieve or how much scalability you get for free to them. They've already discounted it in their minds and they're just using industry bullshit-speak to explain it.

I would love to punch Hani Suleiman in the face.

gms• 19 years ago

I think you'd be more likely to get arrested for that than proving your point.

A Case for Erlang

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