Erlang killer app?

Alex Peake apeake@REDACTED
Sat Jul 20 01:21:04 CEST 2002


Well, since you ask for a poll --

I work on eCommerce systems.

These involve geographically distributed warehouses around the US. We set up items (SKUs), receive
Advance Shipment Notifications (ASNs), receive material, put away in the warehouse. We then receive
orders from our web site or SOAP (Web Services) or ftp, and dispatch the orders to the appropriate
warehouse. Orders in the warehouse are then picked, packed and shipped (UPS, FedEx and most others).
We invoice.

Our system is unusual in that we do this for about 100 clients, and every client has different
rules. The web site is a common set of code, but looks like a different web site for each client.

Our current technology is RDBMS in each warehouse and at the web site (SQL Server). Microsoft IIS,
ASP and VB COM+ on the web site for application programming. MS Message Queues to distribute to the
warehouses.

We have a monster web-based reporting system for our clients - built around Actuate.

The warehouse application is old and the whole system about to be re-written - hence my interest in
Erlang.

Alex


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-erlang-questions@REDACTED
[mailto:owner-erlang-questions@REDACTED]On Behalf Of Ulf Wiger
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 3:21 PM
To: erlang-questions@REDACTED
Subject: Re: Erlang killer app?


On Fri, 19 Jul 2002, isaac gouy wrote:

>Maybe the issue is really one of domain knowledge -Erlang
>experts have domain expertise within Telcomm, not in other
>domains where the technology might be applied?

I don't think it's quite that simple.

Personally, I spent a few years designing systems for emergency
response, trooper dispatch, etc. Many of the things we worked
with were database and groupware oriented. I picked up Erlang
during that time, and considered it ideal for the flexible and
robust messaging backbones we wanted to build.

I'm convinced that Erlang could be used to design some killer
groupware.

I joined Ericsson because I wanted to work with Erlang, but knew
fairly little about Telecom at the time. My fellow Erlang
programmers at work have all sorts of backgrounds.

I think you'd find a fairly wide variety of domain experience on
this list. It would perhaps be interesting to conduct a poll...?

/Uffe
--
Ulf Wiger, Senior Specialist,
   / / /   Architecture & Design of Carrier-Class Software
  / / /    Strategic Product & System Management
 / / /     Ericsson Telecom AB, ATM Multiservice Networks






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