Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Yes, I understand, I was just wondering if Erlang would be considered a "proven language".

From my (limited) Erlang experience, Erlang & Elixir have the same core functionality. Elixir has a "nicer" syntax (I prefer Erlang's syntax but most devs I've talked to like Elixir's).

So if Elixir isn't proven but the concurrency model & programming paradigms make sense, maybe Erlang is a good choice.

* WhatsApp Scaling to 1 Billion users in erlang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c12cYAUTXXs * https://www.erlang-factory.com/upload/presentations/395/Erla...



> "I was just wondering if Erlang would be considered a "proven language"."

Erlang is proven in production for server and telephony apps.

> "From my (limited) Erlang experience, Erlang & Elixir have the same core functionality."

Depends on what you mean by 'core functionality'. If you mean the functionality provided by Beam VM or OTP, then there's a case to be made for that. However, the library ecosystem for Elixir is separate from the one for Erlang.

To use an alternate example, Java is definitely a 'production ready' language for enterprise software. However, if I write a new language for the JVM, it's not automatically 'production ready'. In most cases it's the library ecosystem which is under evaluation, not the platform the language runs on.


Just saying, but so far, there have been more critical bugs in erlang solved due to the Elixir community than Elixir critical bugs solved... so well...


Can you give some examples?


Erlang has been in use for decades, so yes. For many years, and possibly still true, nearly every phone call in the world went through Erlang code. Yes it's proven.


Actually not every call, and not even a majority of calls. And most of the erlang based software available in telecom world - is far from perfect.


As I remember WhatsApp did quite a heavy modification of Erlang/VM, i.e. not a typical/idiomatic Erlang use case I believe.


That sounds fascinating. Any sources?


I haven't watched but this would be a good guess https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c12cYAUTXXs "Scaling with A B: Erlang and WhatsApp"


It was mentioned in one of their tech talks/slides, I don't remember exactly which one.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: