

ONLamp.com -- An Introduction to Erlang - charzom
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/09/13/introduction-to-erlang.html

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arete
Joe Armstrong's thesis "Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of
software errors" (<http://www.sics.se/~joe/thesis/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf>)
is a really excellent introduction to Erlang and the ideas behind it. I'd
recommend that, along with "Programming Erlang", to anyone interested in
learning Erlang or in simply becoming a better programmer.

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falsestprophet
I am learning Common Lisp recreationally to familiarize myself with functional
programming using Mr. Graham's books (they are fantastic by the way). But Lisp
does not seem to be in favor in industry. I do however hear a lot about OCaml
and Erlang. Which of the three do you recommend I focus on?

I am leaning towards Erlang now. It seems to be a network programmer's wet
dream.

~~~
AF
Just get a basic knowledge of each of them.

CL is pretty special and has features you just won't find in most other
languages (macros, interactive error-handling, generic functions), and raw
speed (SBCL).

OCaml...I hear discussion about it, but personally having evaluated it, I
don't know what kind of a future it has (I really doubt it will ever be a
'big' thing). It has some real cruft around the edges, and I can see Haskell
or Scala picking up real momentum before OCaml ever does.

Erlang: learn it. It is a simple language and as a programmer you'll probably
find it very interesting. Also if you haven't done much functional
programming, Erlang will push you into it. Erlang obviously has an advantage
when it comes to parallel processing, but we'll have to see whether the string
support ever gets better, whether it gets more mainstream libraries, and
whether the complete lack of objects is an issue for adoption.

Right now I think Erlang is being hyped a little prematurely, but that might
change if other languages can't adapt adequately to multi-core programming.

~~~
pc
_interactive error-handling_

It's pretty good, but the Lisp world has stagnated, and you'll find equivalent
(and better stuff) in other environments, like Squeak.

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chwolfe
Nice intro. If you haven't picked up "Programming Erlang: Software for a
Concurrent World" by Joe Armstrong, I can not recommend it enough. One of the
few programming books that you look forward to reading.

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davidw
Erlang is a good example of "crossing the chasm" in a programming language
([http://welton.it/articles/programming_language_economics.htm...](http://welton.it/articles/programming_language_economics.html))
- despite many other shortcomings, it is great for distributed environments,
and for its concurrency model. This is enough to give it a boost into the 'big
time', if they play their cards right.

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khoerling
Ahh, it feels great to see Erlang getting press. It's a, "funny little
language" that has a whole lot to offer and even more to teach!

Joe Armstrong's book is brilliant because it seems to be the only one not
written in boring-professor-speak.

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johnrob
Hopefully one day we will find our silver bullet. With the number of
languages/platforms getting touted these days, we are certainly looking hard
for it :)

~~~
simpleenigma
I'm not sure that we will ever find the one silver bullet. IMO, you need to
choose the right tool for the job and sometimes that means leaving your
favorite programming language behind for a project or two.

Speaking as an Erlang advocate it is great for communications and concurrency,
but the string processing leaves a lot to be desired. It is good enough, but
if you are doing text manipulation as your primary task Erlang may not be
right for you ...

But if you are working on communications technologies, you really need to look
into it ...

