erlang -
the next big thing?
tim lossen
reject conf berlin
2007-09-18
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history
• ericsson
• joe armstrong
• since 1987
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strengths
• concurrency
• distribution
• fault-tolerance
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architecture
• „everything is a process“
• nodes
• messages
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processes
• very lightweight
• isolated
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error handling
• „let it crash“
• worker / supervisor
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hype potential?
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pro
• trend: multi-core CPUs
• joe: „now it‘s payback time!“
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pro
• how to scale internet apps?
• clustering!
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pro
• availability of internet apps?
• erlang: record uptimes
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pro
• pragmatic book
• buzz
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contra
• lack of libraries / tools
• not general-purpose
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contra
• unusual syntax
• functional programming!
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conclusion:
hot - but will not
explode
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„[programming in erlang]
imparts the pleasant feeling
of having your brains smashed out
by a large gold brick
wrapped with a slice of lemon.“
-- fbg111 on reddit.com
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