Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#21

Post by pierrefar » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 10:54 AM UTC

qhoxie wrote: post #2

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang No question. Written by the author of the language. It has lots of great practical examples and walks you through everything from start to finish. http://www.trapexit.org also has some really nice tutorials and discussion.

Thanks! Great resources, both.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#22

Post by pierrefar » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 10:56 AM UTC

ricree wrote: post #7

qhoxie wrote: post #2

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang No question. Written by the author of the language. It has lots of great practical examples and walks you through everything from start to finish. http://www.trapexit.org also has some really nice tutorials and discussion.

Another obvious but useful site is http://www.erlang.org/doc I especially tend to spend a lot of time on the pages at http://www.erlang.org/doc/man

Yes, but they're not very beginner-friendly and not that user friendly.

I'm sure I'll use them extensively later when I get more into this.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#23

Post by pierrefar » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 10:58 AM UTC

gqwu wrote: post #19

1) read all courses in http://www.erlang.org/course/course.html then do the exercises in http://www.erlang.org/course/exercises.html 2) read official Getting Started manual http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/part_frame.html 3) learn about erlang OTP http://www.erlang.org/doc/design_principles/part_frame.html 4) this book is a MUST get! "Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World" by Joe Armstrong http://w…

Thanks! The courses look really good.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#24

Post by pierrefar » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 10:59 AM UTC

damienkatz wrote: post #15

The best way to learn any language is to build stuff. Build something you think is cool. Allow yourself to suck at it and do everything wrong. Then build it again, or build something else cool.

Agreed 100%. I have an idea that I want to build with Erlang.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#25

Post by pierrefar » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 11:00 AM UTC

tlrobinson wrote: post #18

Bob Ippolito (who wrote mochiweb, a webserver written in Erlang) did an introductory talk last year: http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2008/03/08/exploring-erlan...

Video is always good. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#26

Post by voodootikigod » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 1:33 PM UTC

We did it as part of a group and found that to be highly advantageous. I recommend finding someone near you who is also interested in learning Erlang and work through it together.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#27

Post by phr » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 4:27 PM UTC

tlrobinson wrote: post #4

I don't know Erlang and I haven't read this, so I can't vouch for it, but I came across this book: http://www.erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf

That's the first Erlang book, and is very good. Unfortunately, it's out of print, or was the last time I checked, but might be available used. It's very good for wrapping your head around programming with pattern matching, single assignment, and message passing concurrency, but light on the OTP, since, I believe, it was written before much of today's OTP was written. Think of it as the book the writers of OTP must have used to learn how to write OTP.

If you can find a used copy, grab it. I bought mine when it was still in print, and wouldn't part with it.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#28

Post by phr » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 4:36 PM UTC

RKlophaus wrote: post #14

tdupree wrote: post #3

After seeing it referenced a lot on HN, I've also been really interested in learning Erlang. What projects have you fellow hackers used/are using Erlang for? Are you glad you did?

I just published a screencast demo of a web framework that I made in Erlang, called Nitrogen. See http://nitrogen-erlang.tumblr.com Also, the technology behind my startup company, Stitcho.com is in Erlang. See http://www.stitcho.com I would definitely recommend it, especially if you are one of those people who really stretches a language. Once you get past the new syntax, it is very quick to learn.

RKlophaus: Your stitcho.com site needs to tell the reader more about why they need Stitcho -- on the first page.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#29

Post by aaronblohowiak » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 6:28 PM UTC

brianr wrote: post #16

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any plans to open source it?

Yeah, that's been on my list for months. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend...

please email me when you do - aaron.blohowiak at google's popular free email host.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

#30

Post by tlrobinson » Fri, Oct 17, 2008, 7:56 PM UTC

pierrefar wrote: post #25

tlrobinson wrote: post #18

Bob Ippolito (who wrote mochiweb, a webserver written in Erlang) did an introductory talk last year: http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2008/03/08/exploring-erlan...

Video is always good. Thanks!

I should also mention I found this one a little more engaging than the Google Tech Talk one.