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In 2005, I worked in software development for 6 months before abandoning it for another field. In my new job, I was given the task of writing a server for a me

In 2005, I worked in software development for 6 months before abandoning it for another field. In my new job, I was given the task of writing a server for a messaging application - which would allow users to send a "hand-drawn" message from our own proprietary handheld device to Windows phones. I was told to learn Erlang and get it done - the company was barely 30 people and had no formal training programs. While I have a degree in theoretical computer science, I didn't do much functional programming before - learnt some Haskell in 2001 in college (just the basics, equivalent of first 6 chapters of LYAH, no monads). I remember learning Erlang over the weekend and delivering it in the first week of my job. Obviously, the code was neither great nor scalable - but I write this not to boast but to tell people that Erlang was so beautiful and easy that even an average intelligence person like me could use to produce functional software in a week. Today, my only regret is that I am not a programmer.

zerr 12y ago
Agree, and to look at it from a different angle - to me writing Erlang felt like I was writing config txt files to some underlying system. The system performs good following your "config" but all the hardcore feel is lost for you.
- Ixiaus 12y ago
  Huh? "Hardcore feel" is definitely there and the language is anything but "writing config txt files to some underlying system". I've built applications in the > 10k SLOC range that use a consensus algorithm for distributed computing and it was hard but made tremendously easier because of Erlang's built in primitives. No hardcore feel was lost at all and neither was it writing a config txt file... [EDIT] I would love to know why the downvoter disagrees with me, unless you're being a downvote kiddie.
  - baldfat 12y ago
    Down vote = I don't agree with your statement normally here. Not that it might be a starting point on a conversation?
    - goshx 12y ago
      Interesting. I have always thought about the down vote as: I don't like your comment and I want to punish you for it. You know, there is karma involved. If down votes are supposed to be used the way you describe, people that are intelligent and polite and educated on their answers, but share a different view than the majority here, should not be part of the community. Is that the intent?
    - Ixiaus 12y ago
      Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. If you disagree, provide a comment as to why. Down voting is for completely irrelevant comments, inappropriate comments, etc... [EDIT] To be clear, I did not downvote you and I disagree with the down votes on your comment here, even though it's off-topic it's important to acculturate people that are accustomed to "downvoting for disagreeing". Which is why I'm commenting.
      - pessimizer 12y ago
        >Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. (citation needed)
        pessimizer 12y ago
        To be clearer (I guess.) There are no guidelines that say this that I am aware of, that I can locate, or have been cited by anyone. The guidelines only mention downvoting in the context of bitching about downvoting.
      - Fuzzwah 12y ago
        Downvoting is for however the user wants to use it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 > pg 2455 days ago | link | parent | flag > I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness. > It only becomes abuse when people resort to karma bombing: downvoting a lot of comments by one user without reading them in order to subtract maximum karma. Fortunately we now have several levels of software to protect against that.
  - zerr 12y ago
    Very interesting! I have to admit I've not gone so far with Erlang... Mind to share some more details? What project/company it is?
  - dvcc 12y ago
    Could possibly be that your comment comes across a bit harsh. Even if not the intention, my inner dialogue read it as someone speaking with anger.
    - simoncion 12y ago
      Strange. My inner dialogue read it as someone speaking matter-of-fact-ly about their experiences with the language. Maybe I assume good faith on the part of the speaker in a wider range of situations than many folks.
      - dvcc 12y ago
        The initial use of "Huh?" might have been what set the tone for me. At the time I read it, the comment also ended with "kiddie", so I might be a bit biased. Aside from that, it's obvious he has more experience with Erlang but the tone still matters in a discussion.
  - burkaman 12y ago
    I would never downvote someone for it, but starting a comment with "Huh?" is always incredibly annoying to me, although it happens a ton on HN. To me it reads like something you would only say if a comment was literally unintelligible, or logically impossible or something. If you changed it to "I disagree," or "What do you mean?" it would change the whole tone of the comment, at least for me. Anyway, just a guess, I don't even have enough karma to downvote.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
lectrick 12y ago
You can always play with Elixir. http://elixir-lang.org/ http://elixir-lang.org/

zerr 12y ago

Agree, and to look at it from a different angle - to me writing Erlang felt like I was writing config txt files to some underlying system. The system performs good following your "config" but all the hardcore feel is lost for you.

Ixiaus 12y ago
Huh? "Hardcore feel" is definitely there and the language is anything but "writing config txt files to some underlying system". I've built applications in the > 10k SLOC range that use a consensus algorithm for distributed computing and it was hard but made tremendously easier because of Erlang's built in primitives. No hardcore feel was lost at all and neither was it writing a config txt file... [EDIT] I would love to know why the downvoter disagrees with me, unless you're being a downvote kiddie.
- baldfat 12y ago
  Down vote = I don't agree with your statement normally here. Not that it might be a starting point on a conversation?
  - goshx 12y ago
    Interesting. I have always thought about the down vote as: I don't like your comment and I want to punish you for it. You know, there is karma involved. If down votes are supposed to be used the way you describe, people that are intelligent and polite and educated on their answers, but share a different view than the majority here, should not be part of the community. Is that the intent?
  - Ixiaus 12y ago
    Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. If you disagree, provide a comment as to why. Down voting is for completely irrelevant comments, inappropriate comments, etc... [EDIT] To be clear, I did not downvote you and I disagree with the down votes on your comment here, even though it's off-topic it's important to acculturate people that are accustomed to "downvoting for disagreeing". Which is why I'm commenting.
    - pessimizer 12y ago
      >Down voting is not for disagreeing, read the guidelines for HN. (citation needed)
      - pessimizer 12y ago
        To be clearer (I guess.) There are no guidelines that say this that I am aware of, that I can locate, or have been cited by anyone. The guidelines only mention downvoting in the context of bitching about downvoting.
    - Fuzzwah 12y ago
      Downvoting is for however the user wants to use it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 > pg 2455 days ago | link | parent | flag > I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness. > It only becomes abuse when people resort to karma bombing: downvoting a lot of comments by one user without reading them in order to subtract maximum karma. Fortunately we now have several levels of software to protect against that.
- zerr 12y ago
  Very interesting! I have to admit I've not gone so far with Erlang... Mind to share some more details? What project/company it is?
- dvcc 12y ago
  Could possibly be that your comment comes across a bit harsh. Even if not the intention, my inner dialogue read it as someone speaking with anger.
  - simoncion 12y ago
    Strange. My inner dialogue read it as someone speaking matter-of-fact-ly about their experiences with the language. Maybe I assume good faith on the part of the speaker in a wider range of situations than many folks.
    - dvcc 12y ago
      The initial use of "Huh?" might have been what set the tone for me. At the time I read it, the comment also ended with "kiddie", so I might be a bit biased. Aside from that, it's obvious he has more experience with Erlang but the tone still matters in a discussion.
- burkaman 12y ago
  I would never downvote someone for it, but starting a comment with "Huh?" is always incredibly annoying to me, although it happens a ton on HN. To me it reads like something you would only say if a comment was literally unintelligible, or logically impossible or something. If you changed it to "I disagree," or "What do you mean?" it would change the whole tone of the comment, at least for me. Anyway, just a guess, I don't even have enough karma to downvote.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

lectrick 12y ago

You can always play with Elixir. http://elixir-lang.org/ http://elixir-lang.org/