book

Introducing Erlang, 2nd Edition

by Simon St. Laurent

March 2017

Beginner

212 pages

4h 47m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Read now

Unlock full access

Who This Book Is ForWho This Book Is Not ForWhat This Book Will Do For YouHow This Book WorksEtudes for ErlangWhy I Wrote This BookOther ResourcesAre You Sure You Want Erlang?Erlang Will Change YouConventions Used in This BookA Note on Erlang SyntaxUsing Code ExamplesHelp This Book GrowPlease Use It For GoodO’Reilly SafariHow to Contact UsAcknowledgments
InstallationFiring It UpFirst Steps: The ShellMoving through TextMoving through HistoryMoving through FilesDoing SomethingCalling FunctionsNumbers in ErlangWorking with Variables in the ShellSeeing Your Bound VariablesClearing Bound Variables in the Shell
Fun with funDefining ModulesFrom Module to funFunctions and Variable ScopeModule DirectivesDocumenting CodeDocumenting ModulesDocumenting FunctionsDocumenting Your Application
AtomsPattern Matching with AtomsAtomic BooleansGuardsUnderscoring That You Don’t CareAdding Structure: TuplesPattern Matching with TuplesProcessing Tuples
Logic Inside of FunctionsEvaluating CasesIf This, Then ThatVariable Assignment in case and if ConstructsThe Gentlest Side Effect: io:formatSimple RecursionCounting DownCounting UpRecursing with Return Values
StringsAsking Users for InformationGathering TermsGathering CharactersReading Lines of Text
List BasicsSplitting Lists into Heads and TailsProcessing List ContentCreating Lists with Heads and TailsMixing Lists and TuplesBuilding a List of Lists
Simple Higher-Order FunctionsCreating New Lists with Higher-Order FunctionsReporting on a ListRunning List Values Through a FunctionFiltering List ValuesBeyond List ComprehensionsTesting ListsSplitting ListsFolding Lists
The Shell Is a ProcessSpawning Processes from ModulesLightweight ProcessesRegistering a ProcessWhen Processes BreakProcesses Talking Amongst ThemselvesWatching Your ProcessesBreaking Things and Linking Processes
Flavors of ErrorsCatching Runtime Errors as They HappenRaising Exceptions with throwLogging Progress and FailureDebugging through a GUITracing MessagesWatching Function Calls

Mapping Your DataFrom Tuples to RecordsSetting Up RecordsCreating and Reading RecordsUsing Records in Functions and ModulesStoring Records in Erlang Term StorageCreating and Populating a TableSimple QueriesA Key Feature: Overwriting ValuesETS Tables and ProcessesNext StepsStoring Records in MnesiaStarting up MnesiaCreating TablesReading DataQuery List Comprehensions
The Origins of OTPCreating Services with gen_serverA Simple SupervisorPackaging an Application
Moving Beyond the Erlang ShellDistributed ComputingProcessing Binary DataInput and OutputTesting, Analyzing, and RefactoringNetworking and the WebData StorageExtending ErlangLanguages Built on ErlangCommunitySharing the Gospel of Erlang
Shell CommandsReserved WordsOperatorsGuard ComponentsCommon FunctionsStrings and FormattingData Types for Documentation and Analysis

Overview

If you’re new to Erlang, its functional style can seem difficult, but with help from this hands-on introduction, you’ll scale the learning curve and discover how enjoyable, powerful, and fun this language can be. In this updated second edition, author Simon St.Laurent shows you how to write simple Erlang programs by teaching you one skill at a time. By the end of your journey, you’ll understand why Erlang is ideal for concurrency and resilience.