Erlang Programming Language
Erlang is a general-purpose, concurrent, functional programming language, and a garbage-collected runtime system.
#What is Erlang?
Erlang is a functional programming language created for telecommunications applications that require high availability, fault tolerance, and distributed computing. Erlang uses message-passing concurrency, and its design allows for hot-swapping of code to minimize downtime.
#Erlang Key Features
Some of the most recognizable features of Erlang include:
- Process-oriented programming model that uses lightweight processes to run concurrent and distributed computations
- Built-in support for fault-tolerance and error-handling, including the ability to recover from system failures without shutting down the entire system
- The ability to perform live code upgrades and downgrades without stopping the system
- Built-in support for distributed computing and networking
- Dynamic typing and pattern matching
- A rich set of built-in libraries for networking, file I/O, and database access
#Erlang Use-Cases
Some common use cases for Erlang include:
- Developing high-availability and fault-tolerant telecommunication systems such as telephony switches, voice mail, and messaging systems
- Building scalable web applications that require real-time updates and messaging, such as chat applications and massively multiplayer online games
- Developing high-performance, distributed systems such as database management systems, web servers, and cloud computing platforms
#Erlang Pros
Some of the most known pros of Erlang include:
- High fault-tolerance and reliability, making it suitable for building critical systems that require continuous availability
- Built-in support for concurrency, message-passing, and distributed computing
- Good performance in handling large numbers of lightweight processes
#Erlang Cons
Some of the most known cons of Erlang include:
- Limited availability of third-party libraries and tools compared to other programming languages
- A steep learning curve due to its unique syntax and functional programming concepts
- Limited support for object-oriented programming compared to other programming languages
#Erlang Summary
Erlang is a functional programming language designed for building highly available and fault-tolerant distributed systems with built-in support for concurrency and message-passing.
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