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Erlang functional language supports concurrency inherently and seamlessly

3 points by Ghassan ↗ HN
I am baffeled by Erlang, a functional programming language that inherently supports concurrency. This is a language that has been out since 1992 by Ericson and Swedish CS labs but only recently is getting some attention. This shows two problems: 1. That despite this has been long needed, since multicores were out, but we did not know about it until recently. And still largely in the dark compared with other popular languages. 2. This draws us to more pressing question: how many technologies out there, are still under publicized, eagerly needed, can be true economic drivers, and still obscure? 3. We can not revive the economy or create a better world unless we truly think outside the box and get VC support properly

8 comments

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pjonesdotca
With reference to point #2, I would respectfully submit that Erlang is not an "economic driver".

Personally, when it comes to concurrent programming I'm more inclined to look at Clojure than Erlang but, when I surf the job sites - I don't see any job postings for either language.

That's not to say there aren't any places with a need for these two languages, I just think there's a long way before a critical mass level is hit to even match Ruby on Rails.

noss
I'm seeing companies that manage to stay competitive because they are using Erlang. If a company manages to make things happen with less resources, it means that resources are available to invest in other things.

To me that is enough to qualify as an "economic driver".

If your argument is that Erlang is not contributing more to GNP than what disappear in rounding errors (or even that), then sure, companies using Erlang are contributing peanuts compared to what products from companies like Microsoft and Oracle are.

pjonesdotca
If you're seeing companies that use it to stay competitive, then that's a good sign.

I was simply pondering on the whole discussion because I have yet to see a posting requiring usage or or experience with, Erlang.

Not to say they're not out there, just I haven't seen it yet.

Ghassan
Exactly. well said. this is the issue I am trying to raise. Companies are not hiring Erlang programmers, because they simply do not know what they are missing. what you don't know, hurts you more. existing problems are there that need to be resolved but there is lack of awareness on what's new and what is out there that can address the problem directly and efficiently and most economically. We have idle multi core processors that are underutilized since around a decade now, and we scale our load balancing by buying more servers. We need strong matrix arithmatic computers, so we buy higher colck cycles with multi cores setting idle, all underutilized with multi threading which was designed for single core CPUs back in the 70s and 80s.

All that is supposed to change, when Microsoft launches .NET 4 and C# 4.0 with it which is the first concurrent programming language from Microsoft and along with that Microsoft is supposed to raise awareness on multi core, and concerrency. And this is the problem!

The industry, economy, development and evolution of systems can not be held back pending a single company like Microsoft, Apple, etc.

Computer science and it's applications need to be utilized properly and timely.

Ghassan
As far as I know, Clojure is a scripted multithreaded langauge that targets JVM. it is not a concurrent language. almost all current programming languages are like that. The upcoming C# 4.0 will be concurrent C#. which is yet to come.
noss
The title doesn't match the point of the question very well.

"How many technologies out there are well kept secret weapons" or something similar would be better.

a-priori
"True economic drivers" are not made so by being wonderful technologies (although that can't hurt). They're made so by convincing those with money that they are, usually through marketing clout. But, success stories and grassroots marketing work too.

So far, Erlang has not had this. So if you think it belongs in the spotlight, then by all means, make something awesome with it. Get on the front page of the Wall Street Journal or something and talk about it, then people may listen.

Ghassan
But maybe there is more to do. you see, it can not always be a single effort.

I suggest that, we technologists and computer scientists might have the responsibility to lead and share in our local societies. If we create a star fish model technology interest groups that work to share knowledge in local communities. host meetings for training locally. use public schools and at the same time educate youth on the new emerging programming languages and systems. invite local corporate IT managers, and IT staff, business decision makers to local meetings to raise awareness on Erlang and other technologies as well. Show casing each. then we can get funded by these very companies that benefit from such services.

botom line is, economic drivers, can be created using new technologies, when understanding propagates on the value put with each of these new technologies. however, untilnow, the history of that course has been tightly coupled with corporate america as opposed to grass roots efforts whcih work on creating these technologies.

Venture capitalests, would find it easier to fund emerging technology companies when public awareness is already there about them.