6 ms·

Ask HN: Learning Erlang from scratch

41 points by pierrefar 18y ago

I've been reading a lot about how wonderful Erlang is. So I'd like to learn Erlang properly from scratch. Any books/websites/docs/whatever is greatly appreciated. I've started reading the official documentation but it's not very friendly. I want something that starts from the basics, through to the syntax through to deployment. I'm sure one resource will cover all this so anything you may have is welcome. Thanks!

qhoxie 18y ago
http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang No question. Written by the author of the language. It has lots of great practical examples and walks you through everything from start to finish. http://www.trapexit.org http://www.trapexit.org also has some really nice tutorials and discussion.
- babo 18y ago
  It's an amazing book, a rare example of well balanced content. Highly recommended.
  - tdavis 18y ago
    This.
- sunkencity 18y ago
  programming erlang is a very good book!
- ricree 18y ago
  Another obvious but useful site is http://www.erlang.org/doc http://www.erlang.org/doc I especially tend to spend a lot of time on the pages at http://www.erlang.org/doc/man http://www.erlang.org/doc/man
  - pierrefar 18y ago
    Yes, but they're not very beginner-friendly and not that user friendly. I'm sure I'll use them extensively later when I get more into this.
- prakash 18y ago
  The trapexit guys are planning to release "Practical Erlang Programing".
- JustAGeek 18y ago
  Yes it really is a great book! However, it is by no means a suitable book for people who haven't programmed anything yet, the author assumes that you are already familiar with coding. So for absolute beginners the book is probably way too difficult.
- pierrefar 18y ago
  Thanks! Great resources, both.
tdupree 18y ago
After seeing it referenced a lot on HN, I've also been really interested in learning Erlang. What projects have you fellow hackers used/are using Erlang for? Are you glad you did?
- brianr 18y ago
  I wrote a message queue server that uses the memcached protocol (so I could use memcache client libraries to connect to it), similar to Starling/Sparrow. Starling and Sparrow kept falling over from the volume of connections, so I decided to write my own in Erlang. We've been using it in production for about 6 months now, and it works great.
  - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
    Any plans to open source it?
    - brianr 18y ago
      Yeah, that's been on my list for months. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend...
      - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
        please email me when you do - aaron.blohowiak at google's popular free email host.
- moonpolysoft 18y ago
  I wrote a clone of Amazon's dynamo. It really helped speed up development vs. trying to do it in a language like Java or C++. http://github.com/cliffmoon/dynomite http://github.com/cliffmoon/dynomite
- RKlophaus 18y ago
  I just published a screencast demo of a web framework that I made in Erlang, called Nitrogen. See http://nitrogen-erlang.tumblr.com http://nitrogen-erlang.tumblr.com Also, the technology behind my startup company, Stitcho.com is in Erlang. See http://www.stitcho.com http://www.stitcho.com I would definitely recommend it, especially if you are one of those people who really stretches a language. Once you get past the new syntax, it is very quick to learn.
tlrobinson 18y ago
I don't know Erlang and I haven't read this, so I can't vouch for it, but I came across this book: http://www.erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf http://www.erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf
- phr 18y ago
  That's the first Erlang book, and is very good. Unfortunately, it's out of print, or was the last time I checked, but might be available used. It's very good for wrapping your head around programming with pattern matching, single assignment, and message passing concurrency, but light on the OTP, since, I believe, it was written before much of today's OTP was written. Think of it as the book the writers of OTP must have used to learn how to write OTP. If you can find a used copy, grab it. I bought mine when it was still in print, and wouldn't part with it.
jfarmer 18y ago
I wrote a few Erlang tutorials was I was learning: http://20bits.com/tag/erlang/ http://20bits.com/tag/erlang/ The public documentation for the language is awful.
balpreetspankaj 18y ago
A few days ago, I was looking at this presentation on Erlang presented at one of Google Tech Talk. This was my first introduction to Erlang and I found it very informative. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=240707194662243675&ei=urr3SJv_IYn0-wHH7r2JBA&q=erlang http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=240707194662243675&#...
damienkatz 18y ago
The best way to learn any language is to build stuff. Build something you think is cool. Allow yourself to suck at it and do everything wrong. Then build it again, or build something else cool.
- pierrefar 18y ago
  Agreed 100%. I have an idea that I want to build with Erlang.
tlrobinson 18y ago
Bob Ippolito (who wrote mochiweb, a webserver written in Erlang) did an introductory talk last year: http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2008/03/08/exploring-erlang-c41-video/ http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2008/03/08/exploring-erlan...
- pierrefar 18y ago
  Video is always good. Thanks!
  - tlrobinson 18y ago
    I should also mention I found this one a little more engaging than the Google Tech Talk one.
gqwu 18y ago
1) read all courses in http://www.erlang.org/course/course.html http://www.erlang.org/course/course.html then do the exercises in http://www.erlang.org/course/exercises.html http://www.erlang.org/course/exercises.html 2) read official Getting Started manual http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/part_frame.html http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/part_frame.html 3) learn about erlang OTP http://www.erlang.org/doc/design_principles/part_frame.html http://www.erlang.org/doc/design_principles/part_frame.html 4) this book is a MUST get! "Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World" by Joe Armstrong http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang good luck!
- pierrefar 18y ago
  Thanks! The courses look really good.
voodootikigod 18y ago
We did it as part of a group and found that to be highly advantageous. I recommend finding someone near you who is also interested in learning Erlang and work through it together.

41 points by pierrefar 18y ago

qhoxie 18y ago

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang No question. Written by the author of the language. It has lots of great practical examples and walks you through everything from start to finish. http://www.trapexit.org http://www.trapexit.org also has some really nice tutorials and discussion.

babo 18y ago
It's an amazing book, a rare example of well balanced content. Highly recommended.
- tdavis 18y ago
  This.
sunkencity 18y ago
programming erlang is a very good book!
ricree 18y ago
Another obvious but useful site is http://www.erlang.org/doc http://www.erlang.org/doc I especially tend to spend a lot of time on the pages at http://www.erlang.org/doc/man http://www.erlang.org/doc/man
- pierrefar 18y ago
  Yes, but they're not very beginner-friendly and not that user friendly. I'm sure I'll use them extensively later when I get more into this.
prakash 18y ago
The trapexit guys are planning to release "Practical Erlang Programing".
JustAGeek 18y ago
Yes it really is a great book! However, it is by no means a suitable book for people who haven't programmed anything yet, the author assumes that you are already familiar with coding. So for absolute beginners the book is probably way too difficult.
pierrefar 18y ago
Thanks! Great resources, both.

tdupree 18y ago

After seeing it referenced a lot on HN, I've also been really interested in learning Erlang. What projects have you fellow hackers used/are using Erlang for? Are you glad you did?

brianr 18y ago
I wrote a message queue server that uses the memcached protocol (so I could use memcache client libraries to connect to it), similar to Starling/Sparrow. Starling and Sparrow kept falling over from the volume of connections, so I decided to write my own in Erlang. We've been using it in production for about 6 months now, and it works great.
- aaronblohowiak 18y ago
  Any plans to open source it?
  - brianr 18y ago
    Yeah, that's been on my list for months. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend...
    - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
      please email me when you do - aaron.blohowiak at google's popular free email host.
moonpolysoft 18y ago
I wrote a clone of Amazon's dynamo. It really helped speed up development vs. trying to do it in a language like Java or C++. http://github.com/cliffmoon/dynomite http://github.com/cliffmoon/dynomite
RKlophaus 18y ago
I just published a screencast demo of a web framework that I made in Erlang, called Nitrogen. See http://nitrogen-erlang.tumblr.com http://nitrogen-erlang.tumblr.com Also, the technology behind my startup company, Stitcho.com is in Erlang. See http://www.stitcho.com http://www.stitcho.com I would definitely recommend it, especially if you are one of those people who really stretches a language. Once you get past the new syntax, it is very quick to learn.

tlrobinson 18y ago

I don't know Erlang and I haven't read this, so I can't vouch for it, but I came across this book: http://www.erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf http://www.erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf

phr 18y ago
That's the first Erlang book, and is very good. Unfortunately, it's out of print, or was the last time I checked, but might be available used. It's very good for wrapping your head around programming with pattern matching, single assignment, and message passing concurrency, but light on the OTP, since, I believe, it was written before much of today's OTP was written. Think of it as the book the writers of OTP must have used to learn how to write OTP. If you can find a used copy, grab it. I bought mine when it was still in print, and wouldn't part with it.

jfarmer 18y ago

I wrote a few Erlang tutorials was I was learning: http://20bits.com/tag/erlang/ http://20bits.com/tag/erlang/ The public documentation for the language is awful.

balpreetspankaj 18y ago

A few days ago, I was looking at this presentation on Erlang presented at one of Google Tech Talk. This was my first introduction to Erlang and I found it very informative. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=240707194662243675&ei=urr3SJv_IYn0-wHH7r2JBA&q=erlang http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=240707194662243675&#...

damienkatz 18y ago

The best way to learn any language is to build stuff. Build something you think is cool. Allow yourself to suck at it and do everything wrong. Then build it again, or build something else cool.

pierrefar 18y ago
Agreed 100%. I have an idea that I want to build with Erlang.

tlrobinson 18y ago

Bob Ippolito (who wrote mochiweb, a webserver written in Erlang) did an introductory talk last year: http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2008/03/08/exploring-erlang-c41-video/ http://bob.pythonmac.org/archives/2008/03/08/exploring-erlan...

pierrefar 18y ago
Video is always good. Thanks!
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  I should also mention I found this one a little more engaging than the Google Tech Talk one.

gqwu 18y ago

1) read all courses in http://www.erlang.org/course/course.html http://www.erlang.org/course/course.html then do the exercises in http://www.erlang.org/course/exercises.html http://www.erlang.org/course/exercises.html 2) read official Getting Started manual http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/part_frame.html http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/part_frame.html 3) learn about erlang OTP http://www.erlang.org/doc/design_principles/part_frame.html http://www.erlang.org/doc/design_principles/part_frame.html 4) this book is a MUST get! "Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World" by Joe Armstrong http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang good luck!

pierrefar 18y ago
Thanks! The courses look really good.

voodootikigod 18y ago

We did it as part of a group and found that to be highly advantageous. I recommend finding someone near you who is also interested in learning Erlang and work through it together.