[erlang-questions] Thoughts on EHE - the PHP killer

[Tim Watson]

On 19 February 2012 08:42, Joe Armstrong <erlang@REDACTED> wrote:
> (( Interesting - I haven't actually tried doing it this way -
> This seems like how jquery does things only on the server
>
> I was wondering about viewing pages as processes and sending them messages.
>
> ie  <div id="mynicetag"></div>
>
> And in Erlang    mynicetag ! {content, "<p>hello</p>"}
>
> But never got round to implementing this ))
>
> ))

Interesting concept. Either way, I think a separation like that would
appeal to many, although I suspect templating is the popular approach
nowadays.

>
> To answer your question the difference is all the code is in one place - I don't
> have to go and look somewhere else to see the code.
>

That isn't always beneficial though is it. Simplicity is best for sure
- I'm definitely with Dijkstra on that one - but even the agile maxim
"do the simplest thing that can possibly work" has to be balanced with
the right factors. For example, you don't put all you code into just
one module, because once a module has more than one axis for change
then it becomes harder to manage and maintain. The same is true for
the UI surely?

> Anyway I write all the html and erlang myself I don't live in
> this world where one guy writes the html and another writes the code
> and another writes the css and another writes the js and another
> writes the bla bla bla
>

And that is quite a rare thing in most medium to large teams and
almost completely unheard of in a large enterprise.

> I'm just making a tool for me - the problem with programming is that
> solving problems is one thing but solving problems subject to the
> condition that the solution is beautiful and maintainable is really
> really difficult.
>

But you're not just making a tool for you if you're promoting it as
something we should standardise on for all web servers.

> My problem is not making web sites that work it's making
> them with beautiful code.

My problem is that I can make a web page functional, but making it
look 'nice' is like black magic to me. :)