What is Erlang and when to use it?

One version of spawn/4 accepts a list of options as the last argument. Ulf Wiger (AXD301) says that the gc_switch and min_heap_size can be used to obtain better performance if you do some measuring, benchmarking and thinking. One ‘win’ happens when you can completely avoid GC in short-lived processes by setting their initial heap large enough to avoid all GC during the process’ life. Java, Eiffel and some other languages have type systems which are mostly checked at compile time, but with some remaining checking done at run time.

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• But this would penalize those that don’t require the «guarantee» and want asynchronous communication.
• While many modern WFM applications provide more accurate staffing calculations, Erlang C is still the preferred alternative for smaller operations that want to avoid investing in the technology.
• Companies committed to a tech stack involving Erlang often find it challenging to switch technologies, leading to higher salaries for maintaining their systems.
• Erlang processes can be seen as «living» objects (object-oriented programming), with data encapsulation and message passing, but capable of changing behavior during runtime.
• That’s why we say that this language is used to create a system that manages a third-party gateway.

On the other hand, many languages are being ported to the BEAM VM, making full use of OTP, Elixir being the most popular. But let’s not forget Luerl, Lisp Flavoured Erlang, Efene and at least a dozen more. It is generally not a good idea at all to use C++ full-stack developer in network-facing applications. They would’ve spent it on Whatsapp even it was written in PHP (like Slack). ETS Tables are not persistent and are destroyed once the process which owns it terminates.

• It is generally not a good idea at all to use C++ in network-facing applications.
• Erlang programmers are one of those things – there aren’t a great deal around, and those who are, generally have work booked out well in advance.
• It operates like a mini operating system, and performs extremely well in multi-server, node distributed applications – controlling a multi-node network.
• The NHS obviously requires high availability and handles over 65 million record requests every day through its Spine, a centralised point allowing the exchange of information across national and local systems.
• Ulf Wiger (AXD301) says that the gc_switch and min_heap_size can be used to obtain better performance if you do some measuring, benchmarking and thinking.
• Rust is a more credible replacement for C++, but there I think it will be fighting inertia.

What sort of problems is Erlang not particularly suitable for?

For example, I can guarantee you that, right now in todays development climate, there is no team anywhere that is going to allow code which has Lisp-like self-modifiying ASTs to pass code review1. At which point, why will anyone change the the new language if the features that are important have been fitted into their current languages. OS processes are a fine way to isolate concurrent processes if they’re quite granular. It works less well when there’s of them (e.g. websocket connections), and they want to share a DB connection pool, metrics, etc. You can do that, but you won’t get the new behavior on the existing connections, only for new connections.

What does soft realtime mean?

One time, I used to work on a high-frequency trading system written in Java… The core system was written with “off-heap Java” style, with memory blocks preallocated… And for the periphery everybody could use regular GC-enabled Java. Despite its low profile, the language’s robustness makes it indispensable in certain sectors. Plus, the limited number of Erlang developers creates a high demand for those proficient in the language. Companies committed to a tech stack involving Erlang often find it challenging to switch technologies, leading to higher salaries for maintaining their systems.

• It is capable of concurrently handling millions of processes, ensuring each process displays soft real-time properties and is fairly treated.
• They can be used to work out how many lines you require between your telephone system and a central office, or between multiple network locations.
• It is unique in its mini operating system that works incredibly well.
• Erlang is a twenty-five-year-old programming language that has yet to win a popularity contest, and almost certainly will never win any medals for speed, let alone any tiaras for syntactic beauty.
• «distributed» and «fault-tolerant» are what’s most often touted as «special».
• It’s not strictly dead, but it’s much less important than it was in ancient Rome, where it was the everyday language of the people.
• I.e. you will get an EXIT signal not only if the linked process dies, but also if the entire remote node crashes, or the network is broken, or if any of these happen before you do the link.

Who Even Uses Erlang?

Those unfamiliar with Erlang may run into troubles with setting up and deploying Erlang applications. It’s one of those things that you need to have done before in order to provision the system properly. Running on an Erlang heart, given its track record with communications software. Erlang is open source and has found a new Erlang Developer job home in blockchain and crypto mining frameworks because of its flexibility.

Erlang’s initial stronghold remains robust, with telecommunications continuing to leverage its strengths. Its ability to handle a massive number of concurrent processes, coupled with fault tolerance, makes it indispensable in building communication systems that demand uninterrupted service and high reliability. Erlang emerged from the laboratories of Ericsson in the late 1980s, crafted with a specific purpose in mind — to address the challenges of developing robust, concurrent, and fault-tolerant telecommunication systems. Its creation was driven by the need for a language that could handle the intricacies of managing numerous processes concurrently, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance in communication networks.