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Actually, I was talking to a few facebook guys a couple weeks ago and they rewrote the chat app in c++ a few years ago. The primary motivator was that nobody k
by dcosson 14y ago
Actually, I was talking to a few facebook guys a couple weeks ago and they rewrote the chat app in c++ a few years ago. The primary motivator was that nobody knows Erlang, while most of their engineers already know c++. I found that really surprising coming a from a company that prides itself as having the smartest people around, and, as awesome as Erlang seems, after hearing that I might think twice about using it for a project if there's a possibility that I'd be hiring other engineers to work on it with me.
- indiecore 14y agoI think that certain realities take over when you get as big as facebook is. It's not the little start-up that could anymore, it's now the 800 lb Gorilla that churns though staff. While you might be able to have the smartest people around at your beck and call you'll want to keep the system accessible to as many of them as possible so your options are always open and there are always going to be more C++ programmers around than Erlang programmers.
- zaphar 14y agoThis is weird though because erlang is way easier to wrap your head around than C++. A C++ programmer should be able learn erlang in a a couple weeks max. If they can't do that then I probably don't want them doing C++ code for me either. Now if they rewrote it in java, because java programmers are easier to find, that might be less weird but C++?
- inopinatus 14y agoOr you can choose to use it and base your hiring policy on hiring great people, rather than hiring "I can only speak C++" engineers.