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You know, there is a programming language based on a PhD thesis on fault tolerance. This programming language is built around a VM that implements lots of great
by namaria 2y ago
You know, there is a programming language based on a PhD thesis on fault tolerance. This programming language is built around a VM that implements lots of great design on error handling. And there is a functional programming language that compiles to the bytecode that this VM runs. It is a delight to use, gives you all the fault tolerance goodness for free, but the name is often cursed in HN threads for some reason.
edit: I might be giving some random episode too much weight. Seems like Elixir and Erlang are actually quite well liked around here
- ejiblabahaba 2y agoWhich language is this? I'm sure some people can clue this together from the hints, but I'm not one of them.
- jasinjames 2y agoProbably Java/Clojure
- namaria 2y agoI meant Erlang/Elixir Java is also based on a doctorate research on fault tolerance?
- nesarkvechnep 2y agoNo, God, no. Java isn’t based on academic research.
- flir 2y agoErlang/Elixir is also a possibility. But I don't think either Java or Erlang were based on a PhD project? (Edit: I just looked it up, and Joe Armstrong's PhD was 2003)
- kbn 2y agoI think erlang
- Philpax 2y agoErlang / BEAM would seem to fit, but I haven't seen much disdain for it from HN posters; quite the opposite, actually.
- pavlov 2y agoYeah, it’s a surprising take because Erlang originally used to be a central object of reverence — some would say fetish — on HN. There was “Erlang Day” when the entire HN front page was about Erlang because pg had made some offhand request for more technical content: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-03-11 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-03-11 This was nearly 16 years ago apparently… (In my mind it’s in the “sometime before Covid happened” bucket. Sigh.) Maybe it’s time for another Erlang Day this March 11?
- flir 2y agoCoincidence: I was just noodling around youtube and saw that "Still Alive" from Portal was added 17 years ago. I'm pretty sure I've discovered a date bug in youtube.
- eru 2y agoI think Erlang day was mostly a joke to make the website more 'boring' to wannabe l33t h4x0rs.
- namaria 2y ago> some would say fetish And there it is
- pavlov 2y agoBut it’s all fetish-positive — people really do admire the language and the runtime.
- dmix 2y agoWow 16 years ago. I remember that day.
- 2y ago
- jesperwe 2y agoDon't forget Gleam! It is young, but has a less steep learning curve than Erlang/Elixir. And it is strongly and soundly typed, with errors as values.
- typesanitizer 2y agoHi, author here. I'm a big fan of Armstrong's work, I've watched several of his talks multiple times and always get something new out of them even if I don't agree entirely. :) I do mention Erlang near the start of the post, around the 360 word mark: > Joe Armstrong’s talk The Do’s and Don’ts of Error Handling: Armstrong covers the key requirements for handling and recovering from errors in distributed systems, based on his PhD thesis from 2003 (PDF) [sidenote 3]. > [sidenote 3] By this point in time, Armstrong was about 52 years old, and had 10+ years of experience working on Erlang at Ericsson. > Out of the above, Armstrong’s thesis is probably the most holistic, but it’s grounding in Erlang means that it also does not take into account one of the most widespread forms of static analysis we have today – type systems
- dmix 2y agoWhen I was reading your article my first thought was most people would only read the intro but many don’t even do that before commenting. Given how prevalent just reading the headline -> immediately posting a preconceived take is, most information is probably communicated through the top comments these days.
- namaria 2y agoIt's a great article but calling Erlang's philosophy of 'Let it crash' a pithy, catchy statement that brushes over the complexities of the real world was an unwarranted attack. There's much more to it and with Elixir on top it goes a long way in lightening the cognitive load of error handling and building fault tolerant software. They aren't perfect tools but they are also not merely misguided academic exercised combined with vapid catch phrases, as the analysis seems to imply.
- typesanitizer 2y agoI have removed the mention of "Let it crash" from that section, and added a clarification for my original intent. I did not mean it as criticism of Erlang or Joe Armstrong, although I 100% understand how it could've been interpreted as such. Thanks for the critical feedback.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]