Revving Up to Speed
December 23, 2008
You can say that I know the words (some, at least), but not the music.
To put it bluntly, I’ve worked through a number of learning resources; even hacked out a few short programs. I now know enough to know that I don’t really know Erlang and won’t until I’ve written a few substantial programs.
Nevertheless, let me share the most valuable learning resources that I’ve come across to date:
- http://erlang.org/doc/getting_started/part_frame.html
This short tutorial provides a bird’s eye overview of Erlang, but it’s skimpy on details and examples. Good place to get your feet wet.
- Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World
This is the bible, written with modesty and wit by lead Erlang developer Joe Armstrong. Joe’s breezy style woos you quickly and easily into the deeper waters of Erlang, arms you with many useful tidbits and tips. His examples are rich enough to get your head spinning with ideas of your own. Buy this book and read it. Read it again. And read it again. You can buy it here:
http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang/programming-erlang
- Erlang in Practice
Kevin Smith builds an Erlang-based chat system in this series of eight webcasts. Since I was under the impression that chat systems were humungous programs best left to network programming wizards, these webcasts more than anything convinced me to put Erlang on the top of my to-do list. Each webcast is some 30 some-odd minutes long and, at $5.00 a pop, well worth the investment. You can sign up here:
http://www.pragprog.com/screencasts/v-kserl/erlang-in-practice
I’ve tipped my hat to this puppy before. Hughes Waroquier builds a nifty little post-it program right before your eyes. Huges helped me see the integration of Erlang and Javascript in an entirely new light.
Over the past few months I’ve googled scores of Erlang-related sites. One of these days I’ll rank them by subjective quality and share the list.
Meanwhile, in the work ahead I’ll assume that we’ve all at least skimmed the above resources. No doubt I’ll be borrowing heavily from these fonts of knowledge and so will here, in advance, express my deep thanks to all who have brought these fine learning generators into being.
