guidance

[Dustin Sallings]

On Apr 28, 2004, at 0:50, Vance Shipley wrote:

> If you're new to Erlang and you're using the process dictionary
> you're probably doing the wrong thing.  I have never used the
> process dictionary and I've been writing Erlang for seven years.
> The closest I've come to using it is recently in dealing with shell
> sessions.  The command history uses the process dictionary.  With
> the shell you need to have some persistence.  In all other cases
> you pass accumulated state around in function arguments.

	I'm not using the process dictionary (I haven't found any reason I'd 
want to yet).  I have a getdict and getval are functions inside my 
module that send messages to my process and receive a response.  My 
concern is that I'm trying to do FP but it feels like OO with all the 
message sending and stuff.

	I'm not complaining, it is just a bit surprising.

> One of the first things you miss when coming from a C background
> and start coding in Erlang is globals.  The process dictionary
> seems to be the answer however it's existence is a compromise. It
> is not the Erlang way.

	I'm not coming from a C background...well, not exactly, anyway.  When 
I learn a new language, I try to learn the way of the new language.  
The erlang way is starting to feel a little like OO and I'm trying to 
figure out if that's because I do too much OO or it's a secret that you 
don't tell people when they're learning erlang.

--
SPY                      My girlfriend asked me which one I like better.
pub  1024/3CAE01D5 1994/11/03 Dustin Sallings <dustin@REDACTED>
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