Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (2013)

learnyousomeerlang.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 28 posts

Re: Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (2013)

#3

Post by AlphaWeaver »

This book is a fantastic introduction to Erlang in very approachable language. It introduces the reader to both language syntax and design decisions that led to Erlang's strengths as a highly reliable programming language for realtime applications.

If you're learning Elixir right now, I can't recommend enough to also learn a bit about Erlang. The OTP and BEAM VM sit underneath both systems, and learning about what's going on under the hood helps a ton when troubleshooting production issues!

Re: Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (2013)

#4

Post by tenk4 »

This book is nothing like the famous Haskell book of similar title. It's really hard to read, with walls of text displayed in a very small font and very little contrast. And already in the first pages it fails to explain the basic question for the newcomer: Why do I need Erlang? What can it do that other languages can't?

Re: Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (2013)

#7

Post by nikhizzle »

8s2ngy wrote: post #5

For those familiar with BEAM-based languages, are there any advantages to choosing Erlang over Elixir when starting a new project?

I’m not sure there is a huge advantage at the beginning, perhaps even a disadvantage because of the ease of use of Elixir. As you get more advanced you start using Erlang here and there to access things not in Elixir. For example, Elixir only has lists not arrays, so if you need a good indexed data structure you end up using some Erlang. Also once you start getting into Mnesia etc, Erlang is the way. All this said, still very early on my Erlang journey.

Re: Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (2013)

#8

Post by ForTheKidz »

tenk4 wrote: post #4

This book is nothing like the famous Haskell book of similar title. It's really hard to read, with walls of text displayed in a very small font and very little contrast. And already in the first pages it fails to explain the basic question for the newcomer: Why do I need Erlang? What can it do that other languages can't?

Huh I assumed this was based off The Little Lisper. I have no clue why in retrospect.

Re: Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good (2013)

#9

Post by joisig »

8s2ngy wrote: post #5

For those familiar with BEAM-based languages, are there any advantages to choosing Erlang over Elixir when starting a new project?

I've used both heavily and I'd have to say no. You are in general better off with Elixir, with easy access to all Erlang and Elixir libraries, all BEAM functionality, a better package manager and build tool, and a more modern feeling / easier to learn programming language. Also starting to see a progressive type system and just a much faster developing ecosystem in general.

I think by now there's also more open source Elixir code out there, which means LLMs will be somewhat more proficient in Elixir (they're not great at it though, but enough to help).

It's harder to work in Erlang and incorporate Elixir libraries than the reverse, although it's certainly possible (you would use the mix build tool from Elixir to do so).

My main pros for Erlang are that it's a simpler language than Elixir with less "magic" and fewer footguns. I still use both, in the same system even, but most new code in the system is written in Elixir.

Post reply on HN