what versions of windows does erlang run on?

[Kent Boortz]

Matthias Lang <matthias@REDACTED> writes:
> I just tried to figure out which versions/flavours/branches of Windows
> Erlang works on and didn't find an answer on the WWW. This page
> 
>   http://www.erlang.se/productinfo/index.shtml
> 
> seems to say that it's "not available" for any modern ones. Is that
> true or is the page just out of date?

It is out of date. Because there are few customers that use Windows we
prioritize support on the Windows versions they use and that are
suitable for running Erlang. At the time Windows NT 4 was the only
reasonable option.

> What about the open source one? I've seem messages from people using
> Erlang on XP, so it would seem to work. Or are there problems?

The primary Windows testing is done on Windows 2000 but we have also
run tests on Windows XP. They perform well compared to the Unix
platforms.

There seem to be some differences in how "pipes" are handled in
different Windows versions or Windows patch levels. I couldn't get the
Tcl/Tk wish program to work correctly as a port program on some
Windows installations. Some bytes sent seemed to get lost. So I use
gen_tcp over localhost instead. I don't know if this is a generic
Windows problem or a bug in the wish program. The ODBC driver is a
port program and no similar problems have been reported.

Erlang OTP R9C can be built from source using Cygwin and VisualC++.
In the latest snapshot there is a README.win32 that describe the build
process and tools needed.

  http://www.erlang.org/download/snapshots/

[As a Unix geek I must really say that Cygwin makes my Windows work so
much easier. I can log in on my Windows XP machine from a Unix work
station at work or home using ssh. From the bash or tcsh shell on my
Windows machine I have an "almost" complete Unix environment where I
can restart daily builds and tests, reschedule cron jobs, try out
corrections to failing test cases etc.]

Marc Ernst Eddy van Woerkom <Marc.Vanwoerkom@REDACTED> writes:
> To identify problems, one would need some test suite, is there
> an open source one?

The test server and some test suites are released as OpenSource

  http://www.erlang.org/project/test_server/index.html

kent