Frequently Asked Questions about Erlang
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Table of Contents
- What is Erlang
- Top of chapter
- In a nutshell, what is Erlang?
- What is OTP?
- What sort of applications is Erlang particularly suitable for?
- What sort of problems is Erlang not particularly suitable for?
- Who uses Erlang for product development?
- Who uses Erlang for research and teaching?
- Can I get commercial support for Erlang?
- Questions about this FAQ
- Obtaining Erlang/OTP and books/articles about it
- Top of chapter
- Where can I get Erlang/OTP?
- What's the current version of (Open Source) Erlang?
- Which licence is Open Source Erlang shipped with?
- Where is the Erlang documentation?
- Which book about Erlang should I read?
- What advanced Erlang documentation is there?
- What documentation is there in related subjects?
- Is there public repository for the Erlang source?
- How can I contribute to Erlang?
- How can I propose changes to the language itself?
- How do I report a bug?
- Where is Erlang discussed in the real world?
- Where is Erlang discussed online?
- Where can I find Erlang programmers/employers?
- Getting Started
- How do I...
- Top of chapter
- ...compare numbers?
- ...represent a text-string?
- ...convert a string to lower case?
- ...convert a text string representation of a term to a term?
- ...use unicode/UTF-8?
- ...destructively update data, like in C
- ...run an Erlang program directly from the unix shell?
- ...communicate with non-Erlang programs?
- ...write a unix pipe program in Erlang?
- ...communicate with a DBMS?
- ...decode binary Erlang terms
- ...decode Erlang crash dumps
- ...estimate performance of an Erlang system?
- ...measure performance of an Erlang system?
- ...measure memory consumption in an Erlang system?
- ...estimate productivity in an Erlang project?
- ...use multiple CPUs (or cores) in one server?
- ...run distributed Erlang through a firewall?
- ...distribute the Erlang programs I write to my friends/colleagues/users?
- ...write to standard error (stderr)?
- Erlang Libraries
- Top of chapter
- What's in the OTP libraries?
- Is there a collection of data structures, e.g. balanced trees?
- Is there a serial port driver for Erlang?
- Is there a toolkit for building GUIs?
- I've written an application/library. How do I package it so others can use it?
- I've written a library to handle XYZ. How do I get it into the standard Erlang distribution?
- Erlang Tools
- Top of chapter
- Is there a pretty printer for Erlang?
- Is there an erlang formatter for CI?
- Where is the source for LEEX (the erlang lexer)?
- Is there a diagram tool specifically for Erlang?
- What code testing tools and suites exist for and in Erlang/OTP?
- Is there a way to benchmark an Erlang implementation?
- Does anyone have a magic file for Erlang?
- Which IDE should I use for Erlang development?
- Are there Erlang Coding Guidelines?
- What refactoring tools are there for Erlang
- What static code analysis tools are there?
- Is there a "reverse compiler" for BEAM files?
- Implementations and Ports of Erlang
- Top of chapter
- Open Source Erlang
- What Experimental, Research and Historical Implementations are there?
- Which version of Erlang am I running?
- What operating systems does Erlang run on?
- What implementations of the Erlang Virtual Machine are there?
- Can Erlang be compiled under Microsoft Windows?
- How can I cross-compile Erlang?
- Is Erlang small enough for embedded systems?
- Troubleshooting, Problems and 'Gotchas'
- Top of chapter
- Why can't I write a = 3 (badmatch)?
- Why can't I change the value of a variable?
- Why do lists of numbers get printed incorrectly?
- Why can't I call arbitrary functions in a guard?
- Why can't I use "or" in a guard?
- Why does 'catch' give me a syntax error?
- What is a sticky directory?
- Why won't my distributed Erlang nodes communicate?
- When distribution won't work
- Avoiding DNS
- Why does my application die every second time I load new code into it?
- Why can't I open devices (e.g. a serial port) like normal files?
- Why doesn't the stack backtrace show the right functions for this code:
- What do I do if I get an error when compiling Open Source Erlang?
- Why do errors in the shell kill other processes?
- Why do I get incorrect answers for floating-point operations?
- Academic and Historical Questions
- Top of chapter
- Why is Erlang called "Erlang"?
- Who invented Erlang?
- Where does Erlang syntax come from?
- Why is Ericsson giving away Erlang?
- What does soft realtime mean?
- How did the first Erlang compiler get written?
- Erlang Syntax and Semantics Details
- Is the order of message reception guaranteed?
- If I send a message, is it guaranteed to reach the receiver?
- What limits does Erlang have?
- Do funs behave during a code change?
- Examples of bound funs causing surprises
- Is it just me, or are records ugly?
- Can a process receive messages with varying priorities?
- What's the history of static type checking in Erlang?
- How does type checking in Erlang compare to Java/Python/C/C++/Haskell?
- What's Erlang's relation to 'object oriented' programming?
- How are strings implemented and how can I speed up my string code?
- How does the Garbage Collector (GC) work?
- Can I exploit knowledge about my program to make the GC more efficient?
- Could the Java Virtual Machine be used to run Erlang?
- Is it possible to prove the correctness of Erlang programs?
- I've heard it's a bad idea to program defensively in Erlang. Why?
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