Longstanding issues: structs & standalone Erlang

[Douglas Philips]

On 2006 Feb 14, at 4:08 AM, Vlad Dumitrescu XX (LN/EAB) indited:
> I agree with that. OTOH, Java has the same problem. There are native
> code compilers, but in most cases one relies on a preinstalled JRE.  
> And
> despite this, Java has already taken over the world (*just kidding*)

Right. Because JRE's "come with" the OS.
Just as Python and Perl now often "come with" Linux and other FOSS OSes.

> Just like Java has JDK (50MB) and JRE (16MB). A possible issue with
> distributing even a greatly compressed runtime with each smallish
> application is that it's going to be quite a lot of deadweight anyway.
> Have 4-5 such smallish apps lying around and there go something like
> 80MB... Disk space is cheap, but not that cheap, IMHO.

Yup.

> I would like to have something like JavaStart. An erlmerge that  
> would be
> able to also download and install the runtime, if needed.

I like that idea too, but with all the virus, worm, phishing,  
spyware, it makes me nervous to put all the eggs into this basket.


> Another variant would be to let code:load() access code repositories
> over the net. This way one could install a really minimal runtime, and
> libraries would be downloaded when used (code loader would of course
> start a background download and later use the local copy).

That also sounds attractive. At least until self-updating program  
like Acrobat is hit with a virus.

			--D'gou