[erlang-questions] noob namespace question

[Richard O'Keefe]

On 13/12/2012, at 6:58 AM, Rustom Mody wrote:

> In Erlang variables start with a capital letter, atoms start with a lowercase letter.
> Functions also start with lowercase.
> 
> How does Erlang distinguish atoms and functions? Especially in the context of higher order functions.?

atom in 'fun <atom>/<arity>' => function reference
atom followed by left parenthesis => function reference
atom anywhere else => just an atom

Similar rule for variables. f(G(h,I))
f(	static call to f/1
G(	dynamic call to whatever G is bound to (which must be arity 2)
h	plain data, used not called
I	value of I, used not called.

If you want to pass the name of a function as a parameter to
a higher-order function, you have to use 'fun <atom>/<arity>',
not _entirely_ unlike Lisp's #'<atom>.