Chapter 1. The Erlang/OTP platform
This chapter covers
- Understanding concurrency and Erlang’s process model
- Erlang’s support for fault tolerance and distribution
- Important properties of the Erlang runtime system
- What functional programming means, and how it applies to Erlang
If you’re reading this book, you probably know already that Erlang is a programming language—and as such it’s pretty interesting in itself—but as the title of the book indicates, our focus is on the practical use of Erlang for creating real, live systems. And for that, we also need the OTP framework. This is always included in any Erlang distribution and is such an integral part of Erlang these days that it’s hard to say where the line is drawn between OTP and the plain Erlang standard libraries; hence, we often say “Erlang/OTP” to refer to either or both. Despite this close relationship, not many Erlang programmers have a clear idea of what OTP can provide or how to start using it, even if it has always been just a few keystrokes away. This book is here to help.
What does OTP stand for?
OTP was originally an acronym for Open Telecom Platform, a bit of a branding attempt from the time before Erlang went open source. But few people care about that now; these days, it’s just OTP. Nothing in either Erlang or OTP is specific to telecom applications: a more fitting name might have been Concurrent Systems Platform.