Fun with Erlang (was Re: Stand Alone Erlang for Windows. yet again)

[Chris Pressey]

James Hague wrote:
> I use a variety of scripting languages at home and work. Mostly I've used
> Perl at work, but I actually used Erlang to prototype an algorithm used in a
> commercial PlayStation 2 game, no joke!  (See http://www.summoner.com if you
> want to see the game.)

OK, this looks like a good place for a segueway :-)

I've noticed that one thing many Perl advocates tend to fall back on
when defending their language of choice is that it is "fun."  I don't,
for the record, see "entertainment value" as a very important metric of
a language, at least not one in which you wish to get some important
work done.  (For a toy language explicitly designed to be fun, it's
another story.)

But to me, Erlang is at least twice as fun as Perl, but I'm certain I
have a different sense of fun than most Perl programmers - witnessing
games like Perl Golf, I think the Perl definition of fun is closer to
"language abuse."  That sort of fun almost isn't possible in Erlang,
which is the way I like it.

But I do want to dispell the myth that because Erlang can do serious
work, it can't also be used for fun - maybe in slightly different ways
than Perl but that's OK.

So I'm thinking about putting together a 'Fun with Erlang' web page to
point to fun things people are doing with Erlang.  Games written in
Erlang like Othello, Minesweeper, and Board would be listed, but so
would projects like this PS2 game (if that's all right with you, James).

So my question to the list is if anyone knows of any other games or
loosely fun-related projects in Erlang.

I'm working on a game myself; it's sort of an MUD/MUSE/IF/roguelike
thing, so I'd be especially interested in hearing about any online games
or other fun stuff that's been attempted in Erlang.

Thanks!

_chris

-- 
"Ten short days ago all I could look forward to was a dead-end job as a
engineer.  Now I have a promising future and make really big Zorkmids."
Chris Pressey, Cat's Eye Technologies, http://www.catseye.mb.ca/
Esoteric Topics Mailing List: http://www.catseye.mb.ca/list.html