[erlang-questions] What are the cons and pros of using Erlang rather than java to develop server backend?

[Ulf Wiger]

Rapsey wrote:
> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 1:49 AM, G.S. <corticalcomputer@REDACTED 
> <mailto:corticalcomputer@REDACTED>> wrote:
> 
>     With Erlang I can use Mnesia, which in it self is much more robust,
>     and scalable rather than for example SQL...
> 
> 
> I've had complete dataloss on a mnesia node....

While I think you will find users of any DBMS (that has a user
base worth mentioning) who have suffered complete data loss,
the statement that mnesia is more robust and scalable than SQL
is wrong. To begin with, mnesia is a database management system,
while SQL is a query language. There are lots of different DBMSs
with SQL interfaces, and some of them are among the most robust
that you can find anywhere. Mnesia does scale very well to many
nodes, but it doesn't scale well into many gigabytes, much less
terabytes, of data - not least because it lacks a query optimizer
to compete with the best DBMSs in this range.

As has been said before on this list, one big advantage of mnesia,
is its zero-impedance integration with the host language. You
don't need to embed a foreign query language into your application,
and you also don't need to do type marshaling in order to use the
database.

> Also I don't think you're asking the right questions. Erlang is 
> incredible for some problem domains and not that good for others. If 
> your problem domain fits Erlang, it is absolutely the right choice.

Agreed.

You may want to run some proof-of-concept project first, and build
a good intuition for Erlang, before you make a big decision.

BR,
Ulf W
-- 
Ulf Wiger
CTO, Erlang Training & Consulting Ltd
http://www.erlang-consulting.com