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giraffe_ladylast Wednesday at 2:45 PM1 replyview on HN

I agree with what I think is your overall point, that there are other solutions that adequately solve the problems BEAM does but in different ways.

I really strongly disagree with the idea that there's no modern use for BEAM because of these other solutions. It's not simply that we've convinced ourselves that "if it isn't solve the exact same way that BEAM does, then it must ipso facto not be as good as BEAM" though I understand how you could see it that way.

Frankly what it is is that BEAM has an exceptionally well chosen position among the possible tradeoffs of solving these problems, which you are otherwise on your own to figure out and which are in themselves some of the most difficult practical considerations of systems design.

So again it's not that only BEAM can possibly do it right, but it's that BEAM does do it right. Having seen so many other attempts to do it better fail, at tremendous expense, it's an easy choice for me for systems that are expected to encounter these problems.


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jerflast Wednesday at 3:23 PM

"I understand how you could see it that way."

It is less that "I see it that way" then that "I encounter plenty of people who speak that way.", and that the Erlang community still definitely indoctrinates people to think that way.

See my other post on the topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44181668 Which echos some of your points.