[erlang-questions] : What is the OTP?

[Raimo Niskanen]

On Sun, Feb 11, 2007 at 07:10:22AM +0800, LUKE wrote:
> Thanks for your reply.
> I had seen those document before. But it does not accurate explain the OTP.
> (I am not come from english-speaking countries) Have some more explanations
> or examples about this.
> ie. The OTP is  like stdlib in c. Or The OTP is like Net::LDAP module in 
> perl.

Well, OTP is more like what stdlib + libsocket + libnsl + all lib... you get
in a standard linux default installation is for C. Or for perl all perl support
librarie you get in a standard perl installation + some more.

Some feature normally not found in a standard C or standard perl installation
is a real-time distributed database 'mnesia', a Corba implementation 'orber'
and probably quite some more. Browse the documentation.

> The OTP is write in erlang ? What is difference between BIFs and OTP?

BIFs are elements of the Erlang language (not OTP) that does not have a
separate syntax hence look like ordinary Erlang function calls. E.g
to register a name you use erlang:register(Name, Pid) while to send
to the process with that name you use the special syntax Name ! Message,
or the BIF erlang:send(Name, Message).

OTP is support libraries that is not part of the Erlang language.
Sometimes the difference gets technical. lists:reverse(List, Tail)
in stdlib is implemented in C in the runtime system but is hard
to regard as a part of the language.

> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Matthias Lang" <matthias@REDACTED>
> To: "LUKE" <luke@REDACTED>
> Cc: <erlang-questions@REDACTED>
> Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2007 5:10 AM
> Subject: Re: [erlang-questions] What is the OTP?
> 
> 
> > LUKE writes:
> > > I have seen some document about erlang.
> > > But i still can not understand what is the OTP.
> > > And the relation between erlang and OTP.
> >
> > The first two questions in the Erlang FAQ are:
> >
> >  | 1.1. In a nutshell, what is Erlang?
> >  |
> >  | Erlang is a general-purpose programming language and runtime
> >  | environment. Erlang has built-in support for concurrency, distribution
> >  | and fault tolerance. Erlang is used in several large telecommunication
> >  | systems from Ericsson. The most popular implementation of Erlang is
> >  | available as open source from the open source erlang site.
> >  |
> >  | 1.2. What is OTP?
> >  |
> >  | OTP is a large collection of libraries for Erlang to do everything
> >  | from compiling ASN.1 to providing a WWW server. Most projects using
> >  | "Erlang" are actually using "Erlang/OTP", i.e. the language and the
> >  | libraries. OTP is also open source.
> >
> >  | http://www.erlang.org/faq/t1.html#AEN14
> >
> > Matthias
> >
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> > 
> 
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-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB