[erlang-questions] erlang sucks

[attila.rajmund.nohl@REDACTED]

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008, Rick Pettit wrote:

> 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...)
>>
>> I think, the major obstacle for newcomers is not the syntax, but the
>> immutable data structures, the impossibility of variable rebinding, and
>
> These "features" make it much easier to write buggy code (and much harder to
> find such buggy code). The developers you speak of need to take off their
> blinders if they ever hope to see the light.

I don't think that immutable variables make it easier to write less
buggier code. On the contrary, I often see code like this:

HR1=f(HugeRecord),
...
g(HR1).

Then someone adds a line to modify the HugeRecord and forgets to update
the call to 'g':

HR1=f(HugeRecord),
HR2=f2(HR1),
...
g(HR1).

Now we have a stupid bug.

  				Bye,NAR
-- 
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
   tried it."