

Erlang functional language supports concurrency inherently and seamlessly - Ghassan

I am baffeled by Erlang, a functional programming language that inherently supports concurrency. This is a language that has been out since 1992 by Ericson and Swedish CS labs but only recently is getting some attention. 
This shows two problems:
1.	That despite this has been long needed, since multicores were out, but we did not know about it until recently. And still largely in the dark compared with other popular languages.
2.	This draws us to more pressing question: how many technologies out there, are still under publicized, eagerly needed, can be true economic drivers, and still obscure?
3.	We can not revive the economy or create a better world unless we truly think outside the box and get VC support properly
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pjonesdotca
With reference to point #2, I would respectfully submit that Erlang is not an
"economic driver".

Personally, when it comes to concurrent programming I'm more inclined to look
at Clojure than Erlang but, when I surf the job sites - I don't see any job
postings for either language.

That's not to say there aren't any places with a need for these two languages,
I just think there's a long way before a critical mass level is hit to even
match Ruby on Rails.

~~~
noss
I'm seeing companies that manage to stay competitive because they are using
Erlang. If a company manages to make things happen with less resources, it
means that resources are available to invest in other things.

To me that is enough to qualify as an "economic driver".

If your argument is that Erlang is not contributing more to GNP than what
disappear in rounding errors (or even that), then sure, companies using Erlang
are contributing peanuts compared to what products from companies like
Microsoft and Oracle are.

~~~
pjonesdotca
If you're seeing companies that use it to stay competitive, then that's a good
sign.

I was simply pondering on the whole discussion because I have yet to see a
posting requiring usage or or experience with, Erlang.

Not to say they're not out there, just I haven't seen it yet.

~~~
Ghassan
Exactly. well said. this is the issue I am trying to raise. Companies are not
hiring Erlang programmers, because they simply do not know what they are
missing. what you don't know, hurts you more. existing problems are there that
need to be resolved but there is lack of awareness on what's new and what is
out there that can address the problem directly and efficiently and most
economically. We have idle multi core processors that are underutilized since
around a decade now, and we scale our load balancing by buying more servers.
We need strong matrix arithmatic computers, so we buy higher colck cycles with
multi cores setting idle, all underutilized with multi threading which was
designed for single core CPUs back in the 70s and 80s.

All that is supposed to change, when Microsoft launches .NET 4 and C# 4.0 with
it which is the first concurrent programming language from Microsoft and along
with that Microsoft is supposed to raise awareness on multi core, and
concerrency. And this is the problem!

The industry, economy, development and evolution of systems can not be held
back pending a single company like Microsoft, Apple, etc.

Computer science and it's applications need to be utilized properly and
timely.

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noss
The title doesn't match the point of the question very well.

"How many technologies out there are well kept secret weapons" or something
similar would be better.

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a-priori
"True economic drivers" are not made so by being wonderful technologies
(although that can't hurt). They're made so by convincing those with money
that they are, usually through marketing clout. But, success stories and
grassroots marketing work too.

So far, Erlang has not had this. So if you think it belongs in the spotlight,
then by all means, make something awesome with it. Get on the front page of
the Wall Street Journal or something and talk about it, then people may
listen.

~~~
Ghassan
But maybe there is more to do. you see, it can not always be a single effort.

I suggest that, we technologists and computer scientists might have the
responsibility to lead and share in our local societies. If we create a star
fish model technology interest groups that work to share knowledge in local
communities. host meetings for training locally. use public schools and at the
same time educate youth on the new emerging programming languages and systems.
invite local corporate IT managers, and IT staff, business decision makers to
local meetings to raise awareness on Erlang and other technologies as well.
Show casing each. then we can get funded by these very companies that benefit
from such services.

botom line is, economic drivers, can be created using new technologies, when
understanding propagates on the value put with each of these new technologies.
however, untilnow, the history of that course has been tightly coupled with
corporate america as opposed to grass roots efforts whcih work on creating
these technologies.

Venture capitalests, would find it easier to fund emerging technology
companies when public awareness is already there about them.

