[erlang-questions] Is there a good source for documentation on BEAM?

[Michael Turner]

Joe writes: "... you fix the final bug and then realize that it was
all wrong and needs a total rewrite, and you start the rewrite the day
before delivery ...."

A friend of mine, former coder who went on to manage coders, once met
me for a beer and moaned that he'd spent the day "fighting a sudden
outbreak of Truth and Beauty." ;-)

This is actually an advantage of generating as much of your
implementation as possible from your documentation (as ROK suggests
above): it gets you more of a Separation of Concerns between where you
want your Truth (the spec) and where you need the Beauty (the code.)

With ths point in mind, I started

   http://beam.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page

If Semantic Mediawiki isn't powerful enough to generate at least the
*makings* of a VM implementation from a rigorous (but still reasonably
human-readable spec), I don't know what is.

The above main page is, of course, wrong. In almost every possible
way. But anybody can help out in fixing it ....

-michael turner

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Joe Armstrong <erlang@REDACTED> wrote:
> On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 11:39 PM, james <james@REDACTED> wrote:
>>> If they aren't written down, they WILL be forgotten
>>> sooner or later.
>>
>>
>> I would also like to suggest that the act of writing down a design forces a
>> degree of rigour that is hard to achieve otherwise.  I have several times
>> thought that I had considered a design from 'every angle', only to find that
>> when I *write it down*, some of the angles were imperial and some were
>> metric, and some were just smoke and mirrors.
>
> I agree 100% - when I get *really stuck* - I write out in clear
> English what I want my program to do.
>
> I often start programming without a clear idea of what my program is to do - I
> "think" I have a clear idea but as the program evolves I find that the
> original idea was
> unclear. Writing down in another language (ie English, instead of
> Erlang or C or whatever) forces
> a cognitive shift in my brain - I suspect that actually *different*
> parts of the brain are involved.
> I can also feel the ideas moving around in my head - feel is too
> strong a word here.
>
> There is also another strange phenomena - until a program is
> completed, the problem
> is not really solved. But as soon as the program is completed in its
> entirety, a strange thing
> happens - then, and not sooner, I realise that a better solution was possible.
>
> Why is this? - I suspect a different part of the brain is involved.
> Some part of the brain
> says "move on problem completed" and as soon as that happens the "move
> on" part of the brain
> realises that the solution you have just arrived at was flawed - so
> throw it all away and start again.
>
> Knuth, he of the wise ways,  says this rewriting process should be
> repeated seven times.
>
> In organisations this causes problems. Just about when the system is
> to be delivered
> you fix the final bug and then realize that it was
> all wrong and needs a total rewrite, and you start the rewrite the day
> before delivery ...
> I have never met a project manager on the planet who understands this
> (Project mangers are from Venus,
> Programmers are from Mars)
>
> I also believe in working in a distraction-free environment (no phone,
> email, twitters etc) you have to
> listen very carefully to catch the small fleeting thoughts in your
> brain. When I solve sudoku I
> get instant flashes where I see where numbers are to be placed - but
> these are fleeting and easy to miss.
> I suspect my right-brain instantly sees a solution and tries to tell
> my left-brain, but since I wasn't listening I missed it.
>
> Programming is actually a form of "applied thinking" where you can
> actually test the results of the
> thought process. Since all the real work takes place inside the brain,
> a brain-friendly environment is
> essential. I once worked in an open-plan office, after a while I
> noticed my (programmer) productivity
> dropped to zero and that all my programs were written at home.
>
> I could wax on but i'm supposed to be writing a book, but have been
> distracted by the Erlang mailing
> list ...
>
> Cheers
>
> /Joe
>
>
>
>>
>> When something is written down, the handwaving stops and the engineering
>> starts.
>>
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