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This is interesting and valid, but to be fair it looks like playdar operates entirely where C++ has no advantages: io bound. It's surprising he didn't figure i

This is interesting and valid, but to be fair it looks like playdar operates entirely where C++ has no advantages: io bound. It's surprising he didn't figure it a bad choice the first time around. Comparing Erlang to a Perl or Python version would be more interesting.

mxcl 17y ago
Ten months ago RJ wanted to write Playdar in Erlang but was worried about the portability of packaging and distributing the Erlang VM. As it stands this is still an untested area for desktop software… but ten months gives you a long time to think about things, and it's going to work, so yay.
- kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
  Distributing Erlang applications may be untested, but there have been good canned cross platform packagers for Perl for some time now. I'm sure the situation is the same for Python et al.
  - gloob 17y ago
    While what you say is true, I'm not entirely certain what your point is. If distributing Erlang applications is/was untested, and (assuming I understand the article correctly) this is a data point regarding distributing Erlang applications, what do cross-platform packagers for Perl have to do with it?
    - kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
      There was no reason to write it in C++ or worry about the difficulties of distributing an interpreter in the first place. There were good tools already. Stepping out on a limb and doing it with Erlang was unnecessary. I thought the thread was fairly obvious.
      - gloob 17y ago
        I'm unclear about what you mean by "unnecessary". In the strict sense, rewriting the software at all was unnecessary; in the very strict sense, writing it in the first place was unnecessary. My best guess at what you mean is that they incurred unnecessary risk by rewriting it in Erlang as opposed to some more mature language, but even then I'm not certain what would be meant by "risk", given that it's an open-source project that is distributed for free. In that context, it wouldn't be a business risk in any sense (particularly given that one could just decide to scrap the rewrite if it was turning out poorly). Might it have been easier in Python or Perl? I have no idea, but it seemed to work out well enough in Erlang, so Erlang would appear to qualify as a "good tool" in this case, at least.
evgen 17y ago
As near as I can tell Playdar is not just io bound, it is network-io bound. I would love to see a Perl or Python example, even a toy example, that can sling bits over the network faster than Erlang. This particular app (outside of the thrid-party libraries the OP mentions) is well within the Erlang sweet-spot.

mxcl 17y ago

Ten months ago RJ wanted to write Playdar in Erlang but was worried about the portability of packaging and distributing the Erlang VM. As it stands this is still an untested area for desktop software… but ten months gives you a long time to think about things, and it's going to work, so yay.

kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
Distributing Erlang applications may be untested, but there have been good canned cross platform packagers for Perl for some time now. I'm sure the situation is the same for Python et al.
- gloob 17y ago
  While what you say is true, I'm not entirely certain what your point is. If distributing Erlang applications is/was untested, and (assuming I understand the article correctly) this is a data point regarding distributing Erlang applications, what do cross-platform packagers for Perl have to do with it?
  - kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
    There was no reason to write it in C++ or worry about the difficulties of distributing an interpreter in the first place. There were good tools already. Stepping out on a limb and doing it with Erlang was unnecessary. I thought the thread was fairly obvious.
    - gloob 17y ago
      I'm unclear about what you mean by "unnecessary". In the strict sense, rewriting the software at all was unnecessary; in the very strict sense, writing it in the first place was unnecessary. My best guess at what you mean is that they incurred unnecessary risk by rewriting it in Erlang as opposed to some more mature language, but even then I'm not certain what would be meant by "risk", given that it's an open-source project that is distributed for free. In that context, it wouldn't be a business risk in any sense (particularly given that one could just decide to scrap the rewrite if it was turning out poorly). Might it have been easier in Python or Perl? I have no idea, but it seemed to work out well enough in Erlang, so Erlang would appear to qualify as a "good tool" in this case, at least.

evgen 17y ago

As near as I can tell Playdar is not just io bound, it is network-io bound. I would love to see a Perl or Python example, even a toy example, that can sling bits over the network faster than Erlang. This particular app (outside of the thrid-party libraries the OP mentions) is well within the Erlang sweet-spot.