What is Erlang:

Erlang is a prominent programming language and an excellent runtime environment. It is an asynchronous language that completes tasks quickly and has built-in functions for distribution and fault tolerance. Engineers use Erlang to build real-time systems and software. It is a robust, dynamically typed language with high scalability.

Erlang uses OTP (Open Telecom Platform) libraries to perform its tasks. Users can create event-driven triggers through the event manager. Distribution is implemented via TCP/IP and the language offers real-time data tracking. It's also easy to update and maintain with standard versioning principles.

When was Erlang invented?

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What is Erlang used for?

Messaging apps

Due to its concurrent distribution properties, engineers can use Erlang to develop instant messaging applications. Many modern messaging apps like Whatsapp and Facebook use Erlang.

IoT Products

Erlang is also used to develop Internet of Things (IoT) products and services, as it can communicate directly with application-level Pmods. Network engineers can use it to resolve traffic and data congestion issues in edge systems.

Telecommunications and e-commerce

The main objective of developing Erlang was to use it in telecommunications services. That's why it includes a sophisticated runtime environment and OTP libraries. Applications and systems developed in Erlang and OTP are more adaptable and result-oriented.

Blockchain development

Erlang has many high-level features that you can use to design blockchain applications with ease and flexibility. Blockchain applications need to scale while maintaining the decentralized nature of nodes and data. Erlang can easily provide this as it has inherent fault tolerance and increases system uptime. Blockchain also requires transactions to be seamless and generate real-time responses to these requests, both of which can be easily programmed with Erlang.

Bank officer

Due to its high availability, developers can use Erlang to create online banking solutions. Erlang can also be used to leverage multicore technologies and development can be done quickly. Fintechs also use it to provide elaborate financial tools, such as hedge fund platforms, that require low latency, high accuracy, and detailed order submission.

What makes Erlang unique?

• Concurrency: The best part of Erlang is that it has vast concurrency potential. It has several lightweight threads that can be handled simultaneously. Each thread runs a different process and the Erlang VM schedules these processes. These concurrent threads improve communication and efficiency. They take up very little memory, i.e. Erlang VM can run millions of threads simultaneously without overloading the system.
• Distributed programming: An important aspect of Erlang is that it allows the effective use of distributed programming. It features message parsing that allows data transfer without using shared memory. Live code loading allows you to change the service code without affecting the execution of other services. Even Erlang's integrated database, Mnesia, is a distributed database.
• Scalability: Another big advantage of Erlang is its scalability. You can add more machines/CPUs to handle the traffic or add more cores to existing CPUs. And the servers built by scaling these machines are TCP non-blocking, meaning you can use them for different applications such as e-commerce applications, digital messaging applications or telecommunication systems.
• Reliability: Erlang has excellent fault tolerance. Your supervisor and gen-servers easily start failed lightweight tasks. It can also self-heal, i.e. manage bugs on a smaller level. An engineer can define a supervision strategy to define the reset process, threshold setting, and edge cases. The language can also perform trace capture for root cause analysis. You can also do live debugging by logging into the nodes directly to troubleshoot them.

common questions

Here are some frequently asked questions about Python development services!

What is message passing in Erlang?

Erlang does not have shared memory. Message passing allows Erlang processes to communicate with each other. The sending process sends a generalized object to the receiving process. The receiving process is responsible for understanding the general object sent by the sending process and then invoking the subsequent code. Message passing in Erlang is asynchronous.

What projects should I not do with Erlang?

Erlang is a versatile language and there are many things you can accomplish with it. However, Erlang should not be used for tasks that constantly require performance optimization. It should also not be used for low-level processes like string parsing and transformation (you can use it, but it will be inefficient).

Examples of applications that you should not develop via Erlang are GUI desktop applications, high-volume models that require high computation, and applications that do not require real-time updates.

What are the predefined macros used in Erlang?

These are the few predefined macros in Erlang

?Module: Returns the name of the existing module

? Module_String: Returns the current module name as a string

? File: Returns the name of the current file.

? Machine: Returns the name of the current machine

Can I get online support for Erlang?

Yes, there are many documents and online references available that can help you get started. Since Erlang is an established language, there is a lot of community support you can get online.