[erlang-questions] erlang sucks

[KatolaZ]

On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 11:41:10AM +0000, Alp?r J?ttner wrote:
> > Maybe it is due to the fact that most of them know C/C++/Java/Python.
> > Maybe Erlang syntax is not so intuitive and easy as one could expect
> > from a modern and powerful languages.  
> > Maybe because the standard library is not so rich and not so
> > consistent as expected from a mature language.
> 
> I cannot agree with it. I grew up in the C/C++ world and also had known
> Python before I met Erlang, still I find it very intuitive. I'm also
> _very_ impressed by the simplicity and the expressive power. (I'm not a
> student though...)

If we should talk about expressiveness, I think that haskell mostly wins 
among functional languages. But haskell syntax (just to keep this example)
is far more intuitive and clear (and orthogonal) than Erlang's. 

> 
> I think, the major obstacle for newcomers is not the syntax, but the
> immutable data structures, the impossibility of variable rebinding, and
> the miss of loop constructs like 'for' and 'while'. For someone familiar
> (only) with procedural languages, it is hard to believe that a language
> can be efficient without these features.
> 

Those features are not erlang-centric: also Ocaml and haskell would
require a little of an effort for a C programmer. BTW, the little
experience I have in writing Erlang code says that if I had written
it in haskell it would have benn far more readable and nice. 

In a couple of words, we don't have just to choose among Erlang OR
imperative programming (C/Java/Python & Co.): we've a lot of choices
in the field of funtional languages, and a couple of them have some
nicer syntax and features compared to Erlang.

HND

KatolaZ

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[ Enzo Nicosia aka KatolaZ --- GLUG Catania -- Freaknet Medialab ]
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