Erlang is getting too big

[Francesco Cesarini]

>
>
>>Things such as List (In)Comprehensions are powerful if you know what
>>you are doing.
>>    
>>
>
>Out of curiosity, what is it you don't like about list comprehensions?
>Just one more thing to learn, or do you think they're particularly
>confusing in practice even if you've read how they work?
>
I *love* list comprehensions. Back in 95, I spent sleepless nights 
trying to solve the 8 queens problem. If I have a bright class, I will 
be the first so show them pivot sort. The same applies to funs and 
higher order functions. However, less than 5% of programmers end up 
using LCs, if not less. People who are struggling to come to term with 
the rest of the language don't, as it is yet another thing to take in. 
Something they can solve with recursion.

Interesting enough, two of the last three major projects (50+ people) I 
worked in, list comprehensions were banned to avoid a minority of the 
people using a majority of the language (There were also efficiency 
problems at the time which have now been solved).

If you really have to add something new to the language, add Dynamic 
Records Joe has privately talked to people about. They are brilliant and 
a perfect semantical fit to Erlang.

Francesco
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http://www.erlang-consulting.com