1

erlang -the next big thing?

tim lossenreject conf berlin

2007-09-18

1

history

• ericsson

• joe armstrong

• since 1987

2

2

strengths

• concurrency

• distribution

• fault-tolerance

3

3

architecture

• „everything is a process“

• nodes

• messages

4

4

processes

• very lightweight

• isolated

5

5

error handling

• „let it crash“

• worker / supervisor

6

6

hype potential?

7

7

pro

• trend: multi-core CPUs

• joe: „now it‘s payback time!“

8

8

pro

• how to scale internet apps?

• clustering!

9

9

pro

• availability of internet apps?

• erlang: record uptimes

10

10

pro

• pragmatic book

• buzz

11

11

contra

• lack of libraries / tools

• not general-purpose

12

12

contra

• unusual syntax

• functional programming!

13

13

conclusion:hot - but will not

explode

14

14

„[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

15

15