[erlang-questions] Why do we need modules at all?

[Joe Armstrong]

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 4:10 PM, Max Lapshin <max.lapshin@REDACTED> wrote:

> I can't imagine myself working with system, that uses non-plain files
> for storing source code.
> Nobody will fix for me Textmate, git or ack to work with this database.
>

Why not? - a plain text file is an abstraction - in reality its a collection
of magnetised zones
on a disk, or electron spin states or something, this gets turned into a
collection of
bits, the bits are rendered in a editor. Plain text doesn't exist - it's
just an abstraction.

The underlying representation of the data you see in a browser may come from
a file
or as the result of a datebase query, you will  never know which it was.


>
> Modules give your clear structure of functions. Without them you will
> end with  mpegts_encode, mpegts_decode,
> and will break your head when there will be 3 or 4 underscores in name.
>

or should the name be encode_mpegts and decode_mpegts the problem with
structured names
is choosing the name - not the fact there is structure in the name.

Imagine the www was just one big structured name and there were no search
engines
how would you ever find anything?

/Joe
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