Backend>Blogs/Talks

The Erlang Rationale, by Robert Virding (PDF)

AstonJ

AstonJ

The Erlang Rationale, by Robert Virding (PDF)

This article was written by @rvirding …over a decade ago! Posting here in case anyone else finds it of interest and adding it to our Erlang portal’s list of pinned threads :nerd:

Here’s an update from Robert about why he wrote this article (from EF):

Edit May 2021: Be sure to check out Robert’s interview here too - he talks about the Erlang Rationale and quite a bit more!

2 comments
/erlang#sticky#info
7 1717 2

Most Liked

DevotionGeo

DevotionGeo

It pointed me to ‘A History of Erlang’ by Joe Armstrong and the first sentence is “Erlang was designed for writing concurrent programs that “run forever””.

A History of Erlang.

2
Post #3

Where Next?

View thread on forum
erlang
sticky
info
Home Backend>Blogs/Talks
/erlang#sticky#info
7 1717 2
Last post

Popular Backend topics Top

CommunityNews
Backend>Blogs/Talks

Optimization - Making Rust Code Go Brrrr
aspenuwu.me
/go/rust#code
2 1429 1
New
First poster: AstonJ
Backend>Blogs/Talks

Ten years without Elixir
Ten years without Elixir. I never got into Elixir, largely because it looked like Ruby. I was a Rubyist for a good while, spent time and...
blog.cretaria.com
/elixir
9 1705 3
New
First poster: bot
Backend>Blogs/Talks

What's Next for Teal, the typed dialect of Lua
What’s Next for Teal, the typed dialect of Lua - FOSDEM 2021. This is my talk about the latest updates on the Teal programming language,...
youtube.com
/lua
0 1352 0
New
First poster: dimitarvp
Backend>Blogs/Talks

I rewrote my Rust keyboard firmware in Zig: consistency, mastery, and fun
I’ve spent the last year building keyboards, which has included writing firmware for a variety custom circuit boards. I initially wrote ...
kevinlynagh.com
/rust/zig
3 2025 2
New
First poster: bot
Backend>Blogs/Talks

I finally escaped Node (and you can too)
Creation vs. Evolution Consider the history of Elixir: first you take Erlang, which was invented by Joe Armstrong and team to solve the ...
acco.io
/elixir/nodejs
1 1439 0
New
brainlid
Backend>Blogs/Talks

Safe Ecto Migrations - Recipes and Resources
There is a new community resource available on writing “Safe Ecto Migrations”. When we get a migration wrong, it can lock up your product...
fly.io
/elixir#blog-post#postgres#database
4 1417 0
New
brainlid
Backend>Blogs/Talks

ThinkingElixir 083 - Zig and Zigler with Isaac Yonemoto
In episode 83 of Thinking Elixir, We talk with Isaac Yonemoto about the Zig language and his Zigler Elixir library. We learn where Zig ca...
podcast.thinkingelixir.com
/elixir#podcasts/zig#dev-news-source#cross-platform#nifs
4 1662 0
New
RudManusachi
Backend>Blogs/Talks

SQL CASE with Ecto
Hi there! Recently I was playing around with extracting and updating data in the DB and for fun challenged myself to try to implement a ...
manusachi.com
/elixir#blog-post#postgres#blog-posts#ecto#tba-blog-post
8 1644 1
New
tonyxrandall
Backend>Blogs/Talks

How to leverage functional programming in Kotlin to write better, cleaner code
As DoorDash transitioned from Python monolith to Kotlin microservices, our engineering team was presented with a lot of opportunities to ...
doordash.engineering
/kotlin#article#functional-programming
5 3159 1
New
StuntProgrammer
Backend>Blogs/Talks

Media Storage and CDN with Phoenix and Elixir
In building lofi.limo, media storage and distribution naturally came up. I have songs, announcements, and background image loops which I ...
lofi.limo
/elixir#article
20 1334 5
New

Other popular topics Top

Devtalk
General Dev>Dev Chat

What dev-related stuff have you been up to?
Reading something? Working on something? Planning something? Changing jobs even!? If you’re up for sharing, please let us know what you’...
#community
1063 23050 405
New
PragmaticBookshelf
General Dev>Learning Resources

Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks
Learn from the award-winning programming series that inspired the Elixir language, and go on a step-by-step journey through the most impo...
pragprog.com
#pragprog/elixir/julia/lua#published-book#factor/elm#minikanren/idris/book-seven-more-languages-in-seven-weeks
4 5862 0
New
brentjanderson
General Dev>Hardware

Moonlander Keyboard (Mechanical) (Ergonomic) (Split) (Ortholinear)
Bought the Moonlander mechanical keyboard. Cherry Brown MX switches. Arms and wrists have been hurting enough that it’s time I did someth...
#hardware/keyboards#moonlander#mechanical-keyboards#ortholinear#ergonomic
212 17779 90
New
Rainer
Community>Journals

Programming Erlang Book Club
My first contact with Erlang was about 2 years ago when I used RabbitMQ, which is written in Erlang, for my job. This made me curious and...
/erlang/book-programming-erlang-2nd-edition#book-club
195 6815 95
New
DevotionGeo
General Dev>Code Editors

Dendron: a personal knowledge management tool on top of VSCode
/vscode#visual-studio-code
30 8077 9
New
AstonJ
General Dev>Hardware

BIIP MT3 Extended 2048 Custom Keycap Set (Drop)
This looks like a stunning keycap set :orange_heart: A LEGENDARY KEYBOARD LIVES ON When you bought an Apple Macintosh computer in the e...
/keyboards#apple#keycaps#mechanical-keyboards
14 6713 7
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Community>In The Spotlight

Spotlight: Dmitry Zinoviev (Author) Interview and AMA!
Author Spotlight Dmitry Zinoviev @aqsaqal Today we’re putting our spotlight on Dmitry Zinoviev, author of Data Science Essentials in ...
#author-spotlight/python/book-complex-network-analysis-in-python/book-data-science-essentials-in-python/book-resourceful-code-reuse/book-pythonic-programming
33 5211 14
New
AstonJ
macOS>Chat

How to block any website on Mac using Little Snitch
If you want a quick and easy way to block any website on your Mac using Little Snitch simply… File > New Rule: And select Deny, O...
#macos#how-to#littlesnitch
5 11227 3
New
CommunityNews
General Dev>In The News

X can’t stop spread of explicit, fake AI Taylor Swift images
Will Swifties’ war on AI fakes spark a deepfake porn reckoning?
arstechnica.com
/swift
0 8379 0
New
RobertRichards
Game Dev>Chat

Hair Salon Games for Girls Fun
Hair Salon Games for Girls Fun Girls Hair Saloon game is mainly developed for kids. This game allows users to select virtual avatars to ...
#ios#android#unity#fun
2 3556 1
New
Back to top

Sponsor Spotlight

Linux New Media

Publishing Linux Magazine, ADMIN, and MakerSpace for 25+ years.

Latest in Erlang

Erlang Portal ❯

Backend>Blogs/Talks

Backend Blogs/Talks ❯

Latest on Devtalk

Devtalk ❯

We ❤️ helpful members!

We reward our most helpful members via our MOTM scheme - by giving away a whopping 25 books per year!

Member of the Month

Devtalk Sponsors

Pragmatic Bookshelf

Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.

Erlang Solutions

We build trusted fault-tolerant systems that scale to billions of users.

Honeybadger

Real-time error tracking, performance insights, and observability for devs.

EEF

Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.

coders51

We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.

Manning Publications

Develop your skills with books, videos, and courses.

AppSignal

Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.

WyeWorks

Enabling companies to succeed by building software people love.

Pragmatic Studio

Courses that move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"

Linux New Media

Publishing Linux Magazine, ADMIN, and MakerSpace for 25+ years.

View all our sponsors ❯

Categories:

Sub Categories:

Popular Portals

Devtalk Sponsors

Pragmatic Bookshelf

Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.

Erlang Solutions

We build trusted fault-tolerant systems that scale to billions of users.

Honeybadger

Real-time error tracking, performance insights, and observability for devs.

EEF

Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.

coders51

We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.

Manning Publications

Develop your skills with books, videos, and courses.

AppSignal

Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.

WyeWorks

Enabling companies to succeed by building software people love.

Pragmatic Studio

Courses that move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"

Linux New Media

Publishing Linux Magazine, ADMIN, and MakerSpace for 25+ years.

View all our sponsors ❯

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement See our Roadmap