[erlang-questions] Basic atom question

Vance Shipley vances@REDACTED
Tue May 21 05:33:42 CEST 2013


No, there is a one atom table for the entire emulator.  If you create an
atom it is added to the table. In the current implementation the atom table
is not garbage collected. Normally atoms are created by loading a module
which references them and normally there is a fixed set of modules in use.

Using erlang:list_to_atom/1 is where the trouble starts. You may use
erlang:list_to_existing_atom/1 to keep from adding new atoms if you must.
Dynamically loading a large number of modules over time would also be a
problem.
 On May 17, 2013 2:42 AM, "Martin Hedberg" <skribent_har@REDACTED> wrote:

>
>
> Hello there
>
> Newbie wan Kenobi here again with a small question. :-) When the system
> restarts atoms are cleared but
> I wonder: Is it enough to restart the process that the atoms were declared
> in, to clear the memory from it?
>
> Best regards
>
> Martin
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: skribent_har@REDACTED
> To: erlang-questions@REDACTED
> Subject: A small question about macros
> Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 06:04:00 +0200
>
>
>
> Hi there
>
> Have begun to take my first "baby steps" with Erlang (holding on to books
> and tutorials).
> I read about how to make macros in the language. However I wonder how I do
> if I want
> to have blank spaces in my commands? So I just can write, for example:
> "repeat 5 times".
>
> Hope you don't see me as a heretic if I want to HyperTalk-ificat Erlang a
> little bit. :-)
>
> I am very grateful for any help.
>
> Best regards
>
> Martin
>
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>
>
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