[erlang-questions] Is erlang a web language?

[fess]

On Feb 12, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Valentin Micic wrote:

>> It would be pure arrogance to think that you are just
>> going to whip out an XML parser
> [...]
>> library code that's been used by many people over
>> many months or years.
>
> Arrogance or not, it is usually much easier to write "your own" than  
> to try
> to fit a square through a round hole.
>
> As for "used by many people..." assertion, IMO, the "safety in  
> numbers" is a
> fool's paradise when it comes to programming. There are far more  
> projects
> that fail than one that are successful, and of these that are  
> "successful",
> even fewer deliver to expectations. A logical destination of such  
> reasoning
> would be that you're more likely to fail if you do what everybody  
> else is
> doing. So, stop pushing this square trough a triangular hole and  
> start using
> your imagination. As No.44 would say -- with Erlang, you can!

Wow,
Joe's post disappointed me.
Valentin's post has inflamed me.

I have to back kevin up here.

To use Valintin's metaphor:
There are times when it is easier to fit the round peg of the correct  
diameter
provided by the public library tested and used by people all solving  
the same common
sub problem of their larger problem. much easier than carving out your
own peg which turns out to be not quite so round and doesn't quite fit  
right
but sort of gets the job done and wasted a lot of your time which should
have been spent on the part of the your problem where your innovation  
was actually required.

It is an arrogant fools paradise  to think that every part of your  
problem is so
unique that you can do it better than all those who collaborated  
before you,
or that it is even worth your time to do so.


A logical destination of such reasoning would be that we should each  
individually
rewrite erlang because to quote joe:

"At the end of the day most good programmers end up writing the code  
they want
because it is *quicker* than searching in vain for library code that
may or may not work and may of may not do what they want. Even if they
find the code they cannot be sure that it is 100% correct."

IMO a seemingly hostile attitude toward improving libraries
and availability of libraries is bad  for everybody.

We all stand on the backs of Giants, those who don't believe so
should spend their days rewriting kernels, perhaps we'll stand
on their backs some day but if we all did it, well, we wouldn't
be very tall giants.

I hope this email is not too inflamatory,  and I apologize because it  
probably is,
but there's something going on here that really worries me about erlang.

--fess
so, sad that he took the fall into this thread.
I hope that ulf says something sage to make it all better. *grin*


















--fess