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

Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

erlang-solutions.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 70 posts

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#11

Post by dudul »

andruby wrote: post #8

I used Erlang before Elixir and it was awesome, albeit with a syntax that required getting used too. I've often looked at bridging the gap between Ruby and Erlang, and closely watched and tested solutions like Reia [0], Erlectricity [1] and Ernie [2]. I was delighted when Jose started getting involved in the space and released Elixir. Thanks Jose! [0] http://reia-lang.org [1] https://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/05…

Elixir's syntax may look more aesthetically pleasing than Erlan's, but Erlang's is way more consistent and simpler once you get used to it/understand the rules.

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#12

Post by dudul »

I really like Erlang and Elixir, but I'm really worried when I see a tech stack that is still trying to figure out deployment and runtime configuration of systems.

I'm not trying to be inflammatory here. As per many resources such as "Phoenix in Action" deployment is still a major culprit. And Dockyard themselves (one of the major Elixir shops, where McCord works actually) have a full time guy on the payroll to try to solve the problem of runtime configuration.

It just sucks, because these are 2 major concerns of any production-ready stack.

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#14

Post by BoorishBears »

dudul wrote: post #11
andruby wrote: post #8

I used Erlang before Elixir and it was awesome, albeit with a syntax that required getting used too. I've often looked at bridging the gap between Ruby and Erlang, and closely watched and tested solutions like Reia [0], Erlectricity [1] and Ernie [2]. I was delighted when Jose started getting involved in the space and released Elixir. Thanks Jose! [0] http://reia-lang.org [1] https://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/05…

Elixir's syntax may look more aesthetically pleasing than Erlan's, but Erlang's is way more consistent and simpler once you get used to it/understand the rules.

I both admire Elixr for making Erlang “cool” and detest it for ruining my single most favorite part about the language, it’s simplicity and clarity.

There’s only one way to do a given thing and you can learn each of the things the syntax can do in a weekend.

It was my first non-C-like, non-assembler language and I loved it.

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#15

Post by jimbokun »

I had never watched Erlang the Movie before, this is truly a gem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKfKtXYLG78

This is a great way to explain the benefits of Erlang. Anyone who has tried to write robust, distributed systems should immediately see the benefits. Even all of these years later.

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#16

Post by jimbokun »

cdelsolar wrote: post #13

I forget where I read that there were estimated to be only about 1K professional Erlang coders in the world. That seems absurdly low. Does anyone believe this is actually true?

If true, it's astounding so few programmers wrote systems that handle such astounding amounts of data.

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#17

Post by dudul »

BoorishBears wrote: post #14
dudul wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elixir's syntax may look more aesthetically pleasing than Erlan's, but Erlang's is way more consistent and simpler once you get used to it/understand the rules.

I both admire Elixr for making Erlang “cool” and detest it for ruining my single most favorite part about the language, it’s simplicity and clarity. There’s only one way to do a given thing and you can learn each of the things the syntax can do in a weekend. It was my first non-C-like, non-assembler language and I loved it.

My sentiment exactly :)

I'm grateful that Elixir is putting Erlang under the spotlights. That it is doing a lot to conveying all the Erlang/OTP concepts and practices. But each time I use it - and I know I may be the odd duck based on slack, blog posts, etc - I feel like the syntax is so complex, with 4 different manners to write the same thing. And I'm not talking about "ways to do things", but literally syntactic ways to do the same thing.

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#18

Post by Sileni »

binaryapparatus wrote: post #5

What an amazing language. I am working on a Elixir project, with a lot of Erlang peaces used directly. Integration is flawless and beautiful to observe. I do have many languages in my toolbox but only few of them were truly exciting for me, Haskell six or so years ago and Elixir/Erlang/OTP this year.

I've really wanted to dig into functional languages like this, because I love the theoretical benefits they provide, but haven't really sunk my teeth into one in a way that would let me understand the flavor.

Let me ask, were you immediately drawn to Haskell and Erlang, or was it a feeling that grew while working with them? Would you recommend working with Haskell or Erlang directly before trying out a language like Elixir, or should I go high level down?

Thanks

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#19

Post by francescoc »

cdelsolar wrote: post #13

I forget where I read that there were estimated to be only about 1K professional Erlang coders in the world. That seems absurdly low. Does anyone believe this is actually true?

Incorrect, it probably got confused with the number of Erlang developers at Ericsson. Not all use it on a daily basis, but estimates on their developers, testers and system integrators is in that range.

Re: Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches

#20

Post by macintux »

BoorishBears wrote: post #14
dudul wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elixir's syntax may look more aesthetically pleasing than Erlan's, but Erlang's is way more consistent and simpler once you get used to it/understand the rules.

I both admire Elixr for making Erlang “cool” and detest it for ruining my single most favorite part about the language, it’s simplicity and clarity. There’s only one way to do a given thing and you can learn each of the things the syntax can do in a weekend. It was my first non-C-like, non-assembler language and I loved it.

When I give talks about Erlang I usually say I can teach the syntax in about 5 minutes. An exaggeration, but not a dramatic one.

I too vastly prefer Erlang’s syntax to Elixir’s. It helps me think like Erlang, and most of my functions are just a few lines long. Thanks Garrett[0].

[0]: http://www.gar1t.com/blog/solving-embarrassingly-obvious-pro...

Post reply on HN