3 ms·

Yeah, this. I'm just getting started with Erlang and I already feel like an idiot for not using it sooner. When I think of some of the things I've done to try

Yeah, this. I'm just getting started with Erlang and I already feel like an idiot for not using it sooner. When I think of some of the things I've done to try to achieve what the BEAM does out-of-the-box...

rhlsthrm 7y ago
Can you give some examples? I've been getting more and more interested in Erlang.
- battery_cowboy 7y ago
  RPC is basically built in, so you'll probably never use REST internally. There's an in memory database built in (ETS) that will replace redis for most key value storage cases. There's easy recovery from crashes via supervision trees and associated features. You can do hot upgrades while your system is fully operational.
  - dnautics 7y ago
    A few protips: hot reloads are outside of a few corner cases generally unnecessary these days. Be careful about erlang rpc if you expose it in any fashion over the network and follow the eef security working group guidelines re: erlang term format. I use Elixir's plug.crypto.non_executable_binary_to_term/2
    - battery_cowboy 7y ago
      Thanks, I knew both of those bits of info, but I didn't know about the guidelines and how to deal with the RPC issue, very helpful.
      - dnautics 7y ago
        to be fair, the guidelines are hot off the presses. I literally went to CodeBEAM, ran into to Bram Verburg (whose fantastic X509 library i had just found a week prior) and he told me about those guidelines, which had just hit hours before we spoke. Bram is great, he's very modest, and was amused that I thought he was some sort of superstar.
        carapace 7y ago
        You wouldn't happen to have a link handy would you? It would be much appreciated.
        dnautics 7y ago
        Erlef security group guidelines: https://erlef.github.io/security-wg/secure_coding_and_deployment_hardening/ https://erlef.github.io/security-wg/secure_coding_and_deploy... X509 library: https://hex.pm/packages/x509 https://hex.pm/packages/x509 Bram verburg talk: https://youtu.be/0jzcPnsE4nQ https://youtu.be/0jzcPnsE4nQ
        carapace 7y ago
        Bless you! "You're a scholar and a gentleman." :-D
        dnautics 7y ago
        Actually I'm a bit of an asshole if you really get to know me, but I'm usually nice on the internet. Thank you!
        battery_cowboy 7y ago
        Well I'm "hot off the press" when it comes to elixir, so it's a good time for me to learn this stuff, thanks for the link below, too.
  - mleonhard 7y ago
    When I used Erlang in 2005, there was a problem with message queues growing and OOM-ing the process. The standard solution to that is RPC flow control and backpressure. Does this problem exist with modern Erlang? Google's gRPC/Stubby has the same problem. It's one reason why gRPC servers are never deployed on the public Internet and always use hefty reverse proxies.

rhlsthrm 7y ago

Can you give some examples? I've been getting more and more interested in Erlang.

battery_cowboy 7y ago
RPC is basically built in, so you'll probably never use REST internally. There's an in memory database built in (ETS) that will replace redis for most key value storage cases. There's easy recovery from crashes via supervision trees and associated features. You can do hot upgrades while your system is fully operational.
- dnautics 7y ago
  A few protips: hot reloads are outside of a few corner cases generally unnecessary these days. Be careful about erlang rpc if you expose it in any fashion over the network and follow the eef security working group guidelines re: erlang term format. I use Elixir's plug.crypto.non_executable_binary_to_term/2
  - battery_cowboy 7y ago
    Thanks, I knew both of those bits of info, but I didn't know about the guidelines and how to deal with the RPC issue, very helpful.
    - dnautics 7y ago
      to be fair, the guidelines are hot off the presses. I literally went to CodeBEAM, ran into to Bram Verburg (whose fantastic X509 library i had just found a week prior) and he told me about those guidelines, which had just hit hours before we spoke. Bram is great, he's very modest, and was amused that I thought he was some sort of superstar.
      - carapace 7y ago
        You wouldn't happen to have a link handy would you? It would be much appreciated.
        dnautics 7y ago
        Erlef security group guidelines: https://erlef.github.io/security-wg/secure_coding_and_deployment_hardening/ https://erlef.github.io/security-wg/secure_coding_and_deploy... X509 library: https://hex.pm/packages/x509 https://hex.pm/packages/x509 Bram verburg talk: https://youtu.be/0jzcPnsE4nQ https://youtu.be/0jzcPnsE4nQ
        carapace 7y ago
        Bless you! "You're a scholar and a gentleman." :-D
        dnautics 7y ago
        Actually I'm a bit of an asshole if you really get to know me, but I'm usually nice on the internet. Thank you!
      - battery_cowboy 7y ago
        Well I'm "hot off the press" when it comes to elixir, so it's a good time for me to learn this stuff, thanks for the link below, too.
- mleonhard 7y ago
  When I used Erlang in 2005, there was a problem with message queues growing and OOM-ing the process. The standard solution to that is RPC flow control and backpressure. Does this problem exist with modern Erlang? Google's gRPC/Stubby has the same problem. It's one reason why gRPC servers are never deployed on the public Internet and always use hefty reverse proxies.