4 ms·

Erlang OTP 21.3

144 points by lelf 8y ago

distortedsignal 8y ago
> The HTML reference documentation now shows the OTP version where modules and functions were first introduced. As someone who works with an older version of erlang, this is a killer feature. Well done.
- jypepin 8y ago
  I think they took that from Elixir? This is done also on elixir docs!
- rdtsc 8y ago
  Agreed. https://erldocs.com/ https://erldocs.com/ is a godsend. Glad they introduced this feature to the main docs as well.
xutopia 8y ago
When I first started doing Elixir I was worried that it depended on old technology... then realized it is actually just mature and always improving.
- derefr 8y ago
  The one weird legacy feature that grates on me when trying to do strange things with Erlang is its heavy reliance on the filesystem. You can barely generate+load a module in memory; you can't generate+load an application in memory, let alone a relup or an entire release. These operations all use the filesystem as a working store for their state. There's many other similar things—e.g. the reliance the ssh application has on the OS host-keys directory.
tombert 8y ago
Something I can appreciate about Erlang is their dedication to improving the platform and language, without the features ever really feeling "bolted on". For example, I personally hated the way records were done in Erlang, but in Erlang 17 they added Clojure-style maps to fix that. I hated that in order to do a loop in a lambda, you had to implement a y-combinator, but they fixed that.
- noblethrasher 8y ago
  > I hated that in order to do a loop in a lambda, you had to implement a y-combinator, but they fixed that. Heh, I see what you did there.
  - lelf 8y ago
    It's just fun(F)->fun(X)->F(fun(V)->X(X(V))end)end(fun(X)->F(fun(V)->X(X(V))end)end)end
    - i_feel_great 8y ago
      There's no fun reading that
  - tombert 8y ago
    I actually didn't mean any kind of pun in this case; I actually meant the lambda-calculus Y combinator. Basically, Erlang doesn't allow loops, only recursion, which is fine for regular functions, since you can just use the function's name. However, anonymous functions inherently do not have a name, and as a result the only way to do loops is to whip out your textbook on Lambda Calculus, and copy Haskell Curry's way of doing recursion. It works fine, but it's also really hard to read, and not fun. Erlang 17 allowed you to give a temporary name to the lambda, which you could use for recursion.
    - noblethrasher 8y ago
      Yes, I knew that you were referring to the lambda calculus y-c. I've edited my original comment to make the pun more apparent.
      - tombert 8y ago
        Silly me!
    - slezakattack 8y ago
      I'm glad Erlang gave you the feature you were looking for but I can't help think of what the cases would be where a map, fold, or even assigning a lambda function to a variable wouldn't work?

144 points by lelf 8y ago

> The HTML reference documentation now shows the OTP version where modules and functions were first introduced. As someone who works with an older version of erlang, this is a killer feature. Well done.

jypepin 8y ago
I think they took that from Elixir? This is done also on elixir docs!
rdtsc 8y ago
Agreed. https://erldocs.com/ https://erldocs.com/ is a godsend. Glad they introduced this feature to the main docs as well.

xutopia 8y ago

When I first started doing Elixir I was worried that it depended on old technology... then realized it is actually just mature and always improving.

derefr 8y ago
The one weird legacy feature that grates on me when trying to do strange things with Erlang is its heavy reliance on the filesystem. You can barely generate+load a module in memory; you can't generate+load an application in memory, let alone a relup or an entire release. These operations all use the filesystem as a working store for their state. There's many other similar things—e.g. the reliance the ssh application has on the OS host-keys directory.

tombert 8y ago

Something I can appreciate about Erlang is their dedication to improving the platform and language, without the features ever really feeling "bolted on". For example, I personally hated the way records were done in Erlang, but in Erlang 17 they added Clojure-style maps to fix that. I hated that in order to do a loop in a lambda, you had to implement a y-combinator, but they fixed that.

noblethrasher 8y ago
> I hated that in order to do a loop in a lambda, you had to implement a y-combinator, but they fixed that. Heh, I see what you did there.
- lelf 8y ago
  It's just fun(F)->fun(X)->F(fun(V)->X(X(V))end)end(fun(X)->F(fun(V)->X(X(V))end)end)end
  - i_feel_great 8y ago
    There's no fun reading that
- tombert 8y ago
  I actually didn't mean any kind of pun in this case; I actually meant the lambda-calculus Y combinator. Basically, Erlang doesn't allow loops, only recursion, which is fine for regular functions, since you can just use the function's name. However, anonymous functions inherently do not have a name, and as a result the only way to do loops is to whip out your textbook on Lambda Calculus, and copy Haskell Curry's way of doing recursion. It works fine, but it's also really hard to read, and not fun. Erlang 17 allowed you to give a temporary name to the lambda, which you could use for recursion.
  - noblethrasher 8y ago
    Yes, I knew that you were referring to the lambda calculus y-c. I've edited my original comment to make the pun more apparent.
    - tombert 8y ago
      Silly me!
  - slezakattack 8y ago
    I'm glad Erlang gave you the feature you were looking for but I can't help think of what the cases would be where a map, fold, or even assigning a lambda function to a variable wouldn't work?