[erlang-questions] Erlang and the learning curve

[Kenji Rikitake]

In the message <B293D35E9E20694A8D9DFFE1BC655C556AA8D7506B@REDACTED>
dated Tue, Jan 04, 2011 at 11:09:39AM -0500,
"Evans, Matthew" <mevans@REDACTED> writes:
> The funny thing is that the non computer science folks found it easier to follow than the computer science folks. It seems that we comp sci people had had our brains polluted by the imperative programming method.

+1. Or even +infinity. :)

Disclaimer: nothing personal to Prolog people here. I just recall my
personal experience.

My brain cells have been contaminated with the imperative language and
destructive assignments (e.g., A=A+1 in FORTRAN) so early as I started
learning English and FORTRAN (in 1974 when I was nine).  I've been in
the continuous detoxication process since 2008.  It's not easy.

I failed to learn Prolog during my CS grad student times in 1988.
Literally I got an D (which means "failed") at University of Tokyo. 

The idea in Prolog which alienated me is backtracking. Erlang does not
have it :)

Now *after* discovering Erlang/OTP and learning the history (especially
about the language systax of Erlang), my rejection against Prolog is
much cured, though I still don't feel like using it, or even relearning
it.

I accept I'm an irrational being on computer languages. :)

Kenji Rikitake