[erlang-questions] eep: multiple patterns

[Darren New]

Ulf Wiger wrote:
> This is actually a very strong argument against structuring large
> systems using message-passing interfaces, even though that
> might seem quite the natural thing to do in Erlang.

It's not a fundamental problem. It's a lack of tools. There are a lot of 
tools for (for example) LOTOS, which is (for purposes of this 
discussion) very similar to Erlang except much more formal. These tools 
do things like find deadlocks, tell you whether the new version of your 
protocol will interact with the older version of your protocol, and so on.

Of course, Erlang adds more real-world capabilities (like the idea half 
the system might crash out from under you) while LOTOS is exceedingly 
difficult to even compile. And the tools (that is, the theory behind the 
tools) have bits that make them very slow in cases with large fan-out.

But it's practical problems, not theoretical problems, that make 
figuring out what you "should" receive difficult.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."