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< Erlang ~ Is Erlang right for me? |
| Marv |
 Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 7:06 pm |
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Joined: 04 Dec 2009
Posts: 2
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Greetings to all the denizens of this forum.
I must preface my post with the admission that I know little about Erlang as it came to my attention very recently, so please bear with me if I say something stupid.
I have a need to develop a distributed database of sorts, stored on peer-to-peer network. Every user of it will be able to write an update, quite possibly a lot of updates very rapidly, which will then spread over the network and be stored in databases of multiple users.
That means I need to develop a very lightweight server capable of processing large amount of small requests and updating database state with lots of simultaneous changes without corrupting it. Since it's a p2p network that anyone can join, I will need encryption, digital signing etc, so I'd also like to know how well those are supported.
Another thing I need is easy installation for final product, since it will be freely available application. I want to make sure release version can be easily installed on Windows without any mucking about with runtime environment settings and such and with low system footprint.
I must also admit that this type of programming is new to me, but it's something of a pet project with no definite deadline, so I have time to acquire new skills I shall need. Everything I read about Erlang seems to point to the conclusion that it's a perfect tool for the job, but I'd like advice from experienced programmers before I commit myself to learning new language. Any help is very much appreciated.
Best regards. |
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| Allan |
| Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 12:20 am |
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Joined: 29 Jun 2009
Posts: 30
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So you want to code sort of a p2p filesharing client, that protects its users against legal actions by providing plausible deniability and darknet or onion routing features?
Of course, it can be done quite well with Erlang. But its GUI toolkit is not really "pretty". Also you have to provide an installer. Erlang is too hard to install and configure for regular users.
If you build your application wisely, it may be updated at runtime without interupting anything. Up- and downloads will not stop and the clients stay connected all the time...
But the real question is: Do you want to do it the functional way?
Erlang is a functional language and as such hard to use for people that prefer to code the OOP or procedural way. Think about it. And try something smaller to learn the language first. I do not think, that Erlang is "easy" to learn.
Personally i like Erlang - but your experience may vary... |
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| Marv |
| Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:54 am |
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Joined: 04 Dec 2009
Posts: 2
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Actually no, that's not what I'm trying to do. Encryption and signing are needed so that users themselves don't tamper with data belonging to other users or access something they shouldn't.
Well that aside, thank you for an advice. I will try to implement it in a simpler way first, try to learn some of the language in the meantime and then see if I can make erlang implementation and if it will improve performance and reliability. |
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