Fermat's Library | The development of Erlang annotated/explained version.

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The development of Erlang

Joe Armstrong

Computer Science Laboratory

Ericsson Telecom AB

joeQcslab.ericsson.se

Abstract

This paper describes the development of the programming

language Erlang during the period 1985-1997.

Erlang is a concurrent programming language designed

for programming large-scale distributed soft real-time con-

trol applications.

The design of Erlang was heavily influenced by ideas from

the logic and functional programming communities. Other

sources of inspiration came from languages such as

Chill and

Ada which are used in industry for programming control

systems.

1 Introduction

This paper describes the development of the Erlang pro-

gramming language. Erlang is a language which draws heav-

ily from various traditions in the logic, functional and real-

time control programming communities.

Our goal was to make a language which could

be used

for building large soft real-time control systems. By large I

mean systems with possibly millions of lines of code. By a

soft real-time system I mean a system which does not faif

catastrophically if a real-time deadline is missed.

Erlang was developed by the author and his colleagues

at the Ericsson Computer Science Laboratory. Ericsson is

currently the world’s largest supplier of telecoms systems

and the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones.

Ericsson’s flagship product is a telephone exchange called

the AXE lO which is programmed in a proprietary language

called PLEX. A typicaf AXEl O system has over 5 million

Iines of PLEX. The AXEIO is specified to have a “down

time” of less than 3 minutes per year - such requirements

are common in the telecoms industry.

The programming languages which are used for building

such systems have to deal with a range of problems not usu-

ally encountered in traditional batch or interactive computer

systems. For example, one requirement is that the system

should be in “continuous” operation - this means we must

do software upgrades without stopping the system. It also

implies the use of fault-tolerant processors and a software

architecture which protects the integrity of the system from

various classes of programmer error,

Erlang grew out of a series of experiments which we per-

formed to see if we could find better ways of programming

telecoms systems.

Our criterion for success was that we

could program telecoms systems with less effort and fewer

errors than could be done using conventional technology.

Permission to

make digital/hard copy of part or all this work for

personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that

copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advan-

tage, the copyright notice, the title of the publication and its date

appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM,

Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to

redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee

This paper starts with a brief discussion of the various

milestones which the language went through. This is fol-

lowed by sections describhrg the language, finally future di-

rections of research are mentioned.

Milestones

●

Early experiments

Being a telecoms laboratory we were in the fortunate

position of always having hardware to play with. The

lab had a Ericsson MD110 (which is a smafl telephone

exchange) which had been modified so it could be

controlled by a conventional Unix machine. We pro-

grammed POTS1 in as many programming languages

as we could lay our hands on.

The main conclusion [5] was that declarative language

programs for POTS were a lot shorter and easier to

understand than imperative language programs. Un-

fortunately the declarative languages lacked features

for concurrency control and had poor error handling

facilities.

We concluded that we would like something like Pro

log with added facilities for concurrency and improved

error handling. No such language existed at the time.

1986 - 1989

The Prolog interpreter

Having decided that we liked Prolog for programming

POTS we started a series of experiments call LOTS

(Lots of POTS) to program not only

POTS but aleo

an extremely large number of different telephony fea-

tures in Prolog. Before long I had programmed a large

subset of PABX features in Prolog. To do so I wrote

a Prolog meta-interpretor which added the notion of

a process to Prolog and which added facilities for ad-

vanced error detection and recovery. This work is de-

scribed in [1].

The Bollmora group

Using the results of the work with the Prolog interpre-

ter we were able to attract the curiosity and interest of

a group of engineers who

were responsible for a future

soft ware architecture of the Ericsson MD 110.

‘

POTS stands for Plain Old Telephony Service, that is, subscriber

A calls subscriber B and they chat for a while

‘Who worked in Bollmora, Stockholm.

ICFP ’97 Amsterdam, ND

0 1997 ACM 0-89791 -918 -1/97 /0006 .,.$3.50

196

●

This group thought that they could US( our results as

a vehicle for investigate ing their own software architec-

tures. This began a period of collaboration which led

to the development of Erlang as a fully fledged lan-

guage and to a new range of Ericsson products.

During the period 1986-1988 members of the computer

science lab worked closely with the Bollmora group,

meeting once or twice a week. During this time the

Prolog interpretor (and the language which it defined)

changed rapidly, The language grew and evolved and

somewhere along the line acquired a name, Erlang,

named in honor of the Danish mathematician Agner

Krarup Erlang (1878- 1929) whose name is associated

with the telecoms industry.

The jam machine

By about 1988 is was clear that Erlang as it was now

called wss a good language for prototyping telephone

exchanges [10]. It was a strange mixture, with declar-

ative features (inherited from Prolog), multi-tasking

and concurrency (inherited from EriPascaJ and Ada)

and an original combination of error handling mecha-

nisms.

Erlang was, however, tar too slow to be used for prod-

uct development, The Bolhnora group did some mea-

surements and decideil t}lat for product development

they needed a system that was 40 times faster than

the Prolog interpreter

This requirement lead to the development of a number

of different abstract lnachines and compilation tech-

niques used for implementing Erlang. A cross compiler

from Erlang to Strand [7] was developed. After a num-

ber of experiments tht JAM [4] machine was invented.

This was based on the Warren Abstract Machine with

added primitives for concurrency and exception han-

dling.

By this time the Erlang effort had grown to three peo-

ple. Mike Wifliams wrote a byte code emulator for

JAM code, I wrote the compiler and Robert Virding

wrote the support libraries.

While we only ever distributed one version of the sys-

tem to externaf user:., internally there were severaf

competing Erlang “engines” where we experimented

with different implementation techniques.

The resulting JAM implementation was delivered to

the Bollmora group in 1989. Fortunately it was 70

times faster than the original Prolog interpretor - un-

fortunately they had now revised their original esti-

mates and wanted a machine that was 280 times faster

than the original.

Adding distribution

During the period 1989-1994 the Erlang “group” ex-

panded (there has ne~,er been a formal group). Claes

Vikstrom joined the group in 1990 and added distribu-

tion to the language. The original language had been

designed with “hooks’ for adding distribution - but

this was Iiever actually done until Claes implemented

it.

The Bollmora group had now decided to go ahead

and build a new PABX in Erlang. Erlang wasn’t fast

●

enough but it was generally thought that the perfor-

mance problems could be solved. In 1992 they started

development of a product called the “Mobility Server”,

In 199.5 this was launched and became part of the

“Consono” product range. At the time of writing the

Mobility Server is marketed in 12 countries. Among

other things it is used to control the DECT mobile

phone in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Fight for acceptance

During the period 1992-1996 it was by no means clear

that Erlang was suitable for programming large-scale

industrial products. While we were very successful in

a number of smalf projects, Erlang programming and

programmers stilf represented a very small percentage

of the programming effort at Ericsson.

The Mobility server project continued and we attracted

several new smalf projects. During this time we were

involved in maasive “guerilla marketing” activities. I

don’t think there was a single person in Ericsson who

ever came out of Bjarne’s3 office without a copy of the

Erlang manual under their arm!

The beam

Performance has always been a major problem. In

1992 Bogumil Hausman started work on the BEAM.4

The BEAM compiles Erlang to C which can then be

compiled with a conventional C compiler. The BEAM

can afso compife to threaded code which can be freely

intermixed with compiled code.

Compiled code is faster but takes up more space than

threaded code. In a large embedded system with mil-

lions of lines of code, the volume of object code can be

a major problem,

Infrequently used and non-performance critical parts

of the system can be compiled to threaded code while

performance critical parts of the system can be com-

piled to native code. There are performance tools

which we can use to analyse the system and find out

which parts of the system need to be native code com-

piled.

The BEAM is described in [6]. In many applications

the BEAM is comparable with C in performance terms.

The BEAM replaced the JAM as the principle system

for new product development in 1997.

Erlang Systems

Up to 1995 most users were “enthusiasts” and Erlang

spread internally within Ericsson by “word of mouth”.

We didn’t find new users, they found us.

As the language spread we needed to produce training

material and hold courses to train new users. Initially,

all courses were held at the Computer Science Lab by

members of the Erlang “group”. Whife holding such

courses was great fun, demand soon far outstripped

supply.

In April 1993 a new company “Erlang Systems” was

formed to handle sales, marketing, education and con-

sulting of Erlang. We had been in the fortunate posi-

tion of having supervised a number of Master degree

Boss of the computer science lab.

4 Bogdans’s Erlang Abstract machine.

197

students in conlputer science at the [Jlliversity 0[ tlp-

psala. Having conlpleted

i]. Masters degree many of

these students were employed by Erlang Systems.

Mike Williams moved from the Computer Science Lab-

oratory to manage Erlang Systems and had soon built

up a strong team of consultants and impressive train-

ing facilities. In 1996 over 500 Ericsson programmers

attended courses at Erlang Systems.

Erlang consulting is one of the most important factors

that have led to the spread of Erlang within Ericsson.

In the first Erlang projects there ww very close contact

between the developers and the users. We knew every

user and could provide individual help and tuition -

this doesn’t scale.

Now, when we start a new project, we aJways try to

get at least two Erlang Systems consultants working

on the project. They provide a vital link between the

users and developers of Erlang. This is a significant

factor in the success of new projects.

It is also interesting to note that the skll level required

for an entry-level industrial programmer has increased

in recent years. A good degree in computer science is

now a pre-condition for working with state of the art

software technology. The days of the amateur hacker

are fast disappearing.

. The tools

The current Erlang system comes with an extensive

toolkit. As well as the obvious software tools (yacc,

lex look-a-likes etc. ) there is a wide range of tools

which are useful for building telecoms applications.

These include things like cross-compilers for interfac-

ing Erlang to foreign language applications, an ASN. 1

interface compiler, an SNMP tool-kit, a HTTP-server

etc.

Many of the new users of Erlang are not initially at-

tracted by the language but rather by the set of tools

which comes with the language. For example, it is

extremely easy to Imihi an SNMP application using

the Erlang SNMP toolkit. The SNMP toolkit, for ex-

ample, contains a MIB compiler, and set of default

methods which allows a non-expert user to build an

SNMP

agent in a matter of hours. Doing this in a

conventional language is much more difficult.

Many of the first versions of the tools were written by

students = part of their Maater thesis work.

● Mnesia

Many real-time applications need access to data over

long periods of time. For example, in a telephone

exchange subscriber data must be stored for many

years and must be accessible within a few millisec-

onds, Charging data (telephone bills) must be kept

and never lost.

Mnesia [9] is

a real-time distributed database designed

for programming telecoms applications in Erlang. Am-

nesia is written entirely in Erlang.

● OTP

On 1 January 1996 a new Ericsson division was created

to support applications written in Erlang. Our users

want a lot more than just a programming language.

For example, some users want not only the language

but also the operating systems and the hardware plat-

form to be delivered in one package.

The OTP (Open Telecom Platform) division can pro-

vide Ericsson users with anything from a simple Erlang

system which runs on a PC to an embedded system

complete with hardware. The division has the goal

of providing prospective users with a turn-key system

which they can turn on and start programming from

day one of a project. Standard OTP software comes

with extensive libraries which solve common applica-

tion problems.

Another goal of the OTP division w= to transfer r~

sponsibility for the maintenance and support of the

Erlang system from the Computer Science Laboratory

to a mainstream Ericsson division.

Erlang in 14 Examples

The previous sections described the development of Erlang.

The following sections describe Erlang through a number of

small examples.

3.1 Sequential Erlang

Example 1- Factorial

All functions are defined in modules, for example, factorial

can be written:

-module (math) .

-export ([f ac/11 ) .

fat(N) when N > 0 -> N * fac(N-1) ;

fat(O)

-> 1.

The annotation -export ([f ac/ 11 ) means the function

f ac with one argument is from the module. Only exported

functions can be called from outside the module.

Once a module has been loaded into the system the query

evaluator can be

used for function evacuation:

> math: fac(25) .

15511210043330985984000000

Example 2- Binary Tree

lookup (Key, {Key, Val, -, _}) ->

{ok, Vail;

lookup (Key, {Keyl ,Val ,S ,B}) when Key<Keyl ->

lookup (Key, S) ;

lookup (Key,

{Keyl ,Val, S, B}) ->

lookup (Key, B) ;

lookup (Key, nil) ->

not-f ound.

Here the

tuple {Key, Val, S ,B} represents a node of a

binary tree. Tuples store fixed numbers of arguments.

Example 3- Append

append ([HIT], L) -> [Hlappend(T, L)];

append ([] ,

L) -> L.

198

The notation [HI T] when occurring in ii function head

denotes a pattern matching operation on a list. His the first

element of the list, T is the remainder of the list. When

occurring on the right hand side of a production it denotes

a list constructor.

Example 4- Sort

sort ( [pivot ITI ) ->

sort([Xll X <- T, X < Pivot]) ++

[Pivot] ++

sort([Xll X <- T, X >= Pivot]);

sort([l) -> [1.

The notation [Expr II

. ..1 introduces a list compre-

hension and ++is the infix append operator.

Examples- Adder

Lambda expressions are introduced with the syntax:

fun{. . .

) -> end

As an

example we can write:

> Adder = fun(N) -> fun(X) -> X + N end end.

SFr.m

> G = Adder (lO).

#Fun

> G(5).

3.2

Concurrent Erlang

Example 6- An area Server

Starto ->

spam(funo -> loop(O) end).

loop(Tot) ->

receive

{Pid,

{square, Xl} ->

Pid ! X*X,

loop(Tot + X*X);

{Pid, {rectangle, [X,yI}}->

Pid ! X*Y,

loop(Tot + X*Y);

{Pid, areas} ->

Pid ! Tot,

loop(Tot)

end.

This creates an “area server” -

you can ask the server

what the area of a square or rectangle is, or, you can ask it

to return the total of all areas that it has been requested to

compute.

In the above, spawn(Fun) creates a parallel process which

evaluates the lambda expression Fun. Spawn returns a pro-

cess identifier (Pid) which can be used to communicate with

the process.

Here Pid ! M sends the message M to the process Pid.

receive . . . endis a pattern matching operation which re-

ceives a message,

Send is an asynchronous non-blocking

operation.

Example 7- An area client

Client code which uses the above server can be written:

Pid ! {selfo,

{square, 10}},

receive

Area ->

. . .

end

Example 8- Global Server

In the above examples, the process identifier of the server

hadtomade known tothe client. Toprovide a global service

we can associate a process identifier with a global name se

follows:

. . .

Pid - spavn(Fun),

. . .

area-server ! . . .

This associates the global name area-server with Pid.

Thereafter any process evaluating in the node where this

name was registered can send a message to the process with

the syntax area-server ! ?lsg

3.3

Distribution

Example 9- Spawning ona remote node

Spawn can be used tocreate aprocess ofa different Erlang

node.

. . .

Pid = sparm(Fun@Node)

. . .

alive (Node)

. . .

not-al ive(llode)

The primitives alive and not-alive signify a node’s

willingness to participate in distributed computations. If

they have not evaluated alive they remain “anonymous”

and cannot take part in distributed computations.

3.4

Error detection

Erlang is designed for programming “robust” systems, so

there are a number of primitives for trapping errors. Error

recovery is not automatic. The programmer must design a

fault-tolerant architecture which can be implemented using

the error detection mechanisms.

Example 10- Catch

> x = 1/0.

** exited: {badarith, divide_by_zero} **

> X = (catch 1/0).

{’EXIT’, {badmith, divide-by-zero}]

> bo.

X = {’EXIT’,{badarith, divide-by_zero}}

catch (Expr) converts any error occurring within Expr

into a term describing the error.

199

Example 11- Catch and throw

case catch f(X) of

{exception, Why} ->

Actions;

NormalReturn ->

Actions;

end,

f(x) ->

. . .

Nomal.retumt-value;

f(x) ->

. . .

throw({exceptionl, . ..}).

Non-local returns can be performed with throv(Expr).

Expr is evaluated and

becomes the value of the enclosing

catch,

Example 12- Links and trapping exits

Processes can be linked together. If a process dies an

message is sent to all processes to which it is linked.

process-flag(trap-exits, true),

P =

spavn-link(Node, Fun),

receive

{’EXITJ, P,

why} ->

Actions;

. . .

end

error

spaun.link(Fw) creates a parallel process which evalu-

ates Fun and creates a link between the process which per-

forms the spawn (the parent) and thenewly created process

(the child).

If an exception is raised in the child process then an

error message is sent to all processes which the child process

is linked to. In our example an error in the child process

will cause an error message to be sent to the parent process.

The parent process can receive the error message and take

appropriate action.

Example 13- Undefined processes

Ifwecallllod:Func (Argl,. .Argn) and this function cannot

be located in the system, then Hod: Func behaves as if it had

been defined as follows:

Hod:Func(Argl, . . . .

Argn) ->

error_handler:undefined-functlon(Hod,

Func,

[Argl, . . Argnl)

The function undefined_function can be definedby the

user or the system default can be used. It is usually defined

something like:

undefined-function(Hod, Func, Args) ->

case code: ensure_loaded(Hod) of

{module, Hodl ->

case is-exported(Hod, Func, length(Args)) of

true ->

apply(Hod, Func, Args);

false ->

exit({undef, {Hod,Func,Args}})

end;

{module, Other} ->

exit({undef, {Hod,Func,Args}} );

{interpret, Hod} ->

int:eval(Hod, Func, Args);

Other ->

exit({undef,{Hod,Func ,Args}})

end.

3.5 Hot code replacement

Example 14- Code replacement

Erlang is designed for “non-stop” systems. We need to be

able to replace code and data without stopping the system.

This example shows how we can change codein a server,

without stopping the server.

loop(Data, F) ->

receive

{request, Pid, (?1 ->

{Reply, Datal} = F(Q, Data),

Pid ! Reply,

loop(Datal, F);

{cha.nge_code, Fl} ->

loop(Data, Fl)

end

The above code represents a server. Data represent the

local state of the server. F is a lambda expression which

determines the behaviour of the server. Tochange the code

in the server we send it the message {change_code,

Fl}

The garbage collector willremove the old function.

Higher Order Processes

Most large Erlang

systems are programmed by re-using code

from a number of programming patterns which we call be-

haviors. This is a processes whose behaviour will be deter-

mined by a lambda expression at run-time.

As an example of a behaviour we show how a simple

client-server model can be programmed. Firstly the code

for the generic part of the client-server:

Generic Client Server

-rnodule(cs).

-export([start/3, rpc/2, loop/21).

start(?iae, Data, Fun) ->

spavn(funo ->

loop(Data, Fun)

end) ) .

rpc(llime, q) ->

Tag = refo,

IJame ! {query, selfo, Tag,

receive

{Tag, Reply] -> Reply

end.

loop(Data, Fun) ->

u}*

200

receive

{query, Pid, Tag, Q} ->

{Reply, Datal} = Fun(Q, Data),

Pid ! {Tag, Reply},

loop(Datal, Fun)

end.

The above code provides skeleton code for a client-server.

We can parameterise it by instantiating the variable Fun

with a lambda expression which gives the server its desired

behaviour.

Forexarnple, aKey-Value dictionary server can be made

as follows:

A key-Value Server

-rnodule(kv) .

starto -> cs:start(keydb, [],

add(Key, Val) -> cs:rpc(keydb,

lookup(Key)

-> cs:rpc(keydb,

handler({add,

Key, Val}, Data)

{ok, add(Key,Val,Data)];

handler({lookup, Key}, Data)

{find(Key, Data), L)ata}.

add(Key,Val, [{Key,_}lT]) ->

[{Key,Val}lT];

add(Key,Val, [HIT]) ->

[Hladd(Key,Val,T}I ;

add(Key,Val, Kl) ->

[{Key,Val}].

find(Key, [{Key,Val}l_]l ->

{found, Vail;

find(Key, [HIT]) ->

find(Key, T);

find(Key,D) ->

error.

fun handler/2).

{add,Key,Val}).

{lookup,Key}).

Insequential programnring a small number of higher or-

der functions (map, fold, zip etc.) provide a library of func-

tions which the programmer can re-use in a number of dif-

ferent contexts. Note thereis alirnit edsetofsu chfunctions.

Toomany ortoo abstract functions would not help.

In concurrent programming we have found that most

concurrent programs can be built from a small number of

higher order processes (such as the client-server) example.

In a given application between 5 and 10 such higher-order

processes seems to capture 95

‘%oof the concurrency mecha-

nisms.

Interestingly the generic part of the higher-order process

is often not well-typed, but the functions which parameterise

the process are.

Enter The Type System

Erlang

has a dynamic type system which was inherited from

Prolog, All types are checked at run-time. Nonsense ex-

pressions (for example I + true) are not type-checked at

compile time but result in run-time exceptions.

In 1995 Phil Wadler decided that Erlang needed atype

system, and promptly informed us that he was makkrg one.

After he hads tarted work on the project he realised that he

needed some money and some help. He got his money, and

we got a type system,

At the time of writing a Haskell prototype of the type

checker [8] is being evaluated and the type checker itself is

being re-writtenin Erlang.

We areevahrating the type systemby type checking all

the libraries in the standard Erlang distribution. This work

is not complete, but we can make certain observations about

the type system.

The first point to note is that the type checker is totafly

free-standing from the Erlang system itself. Nochanges have

been made to Erlang to accommodate the type system.

A consequence of this is that theuser is free to compile

and run programs which the type checker says are not well-

typed. This is in contrast to say Haskell, or ML where a

type-incorrect program cannot be compiled or run.

Many programs behave correctly despite the fact they

are not well-typed. This is especially true of “systems soft-

ware” -for example, theprograrnsin thekernel of the Erlang

run-time which are responsible for IO and distribution per-

form highly complex generic operations on arbitrary data

structures.

In the Erlang type system ausercan declare a type. For

example:

-type fac(into) -> into.

fat(N) vhenN > 0 -> N * fac(ll-l);

fat(O)

-> 1.

Ifa typeis supplied it is checked by the type checker.

Types can be annotated unchecked. This means that the

type checker accepts the supplied type without analyzing the

function tosee ifit hasthetype the programmer intended.

In practise this turns out to be very useful for forcing

bizarre code through the type checker. An example is the

code for the Erlang “pretty printer” The pretty printer con-

tains code like:

-unchecked([pp/1] ).

-type pp(l) -> deepstringo.

pp(X) then tuple(X) ->

pp_list(tuple_to_list(T) );

pp(X) when list(X) ->

. . .

pp(X)

when float(X) ->

. . .

ppis a function which turns any arbitrary data structure

into a deep list of characters. We tell the system that pp is

of type l->deepstringo where 1 is the universal type.

This is a correct statement about the program but one

which cannot be inferred by the type checker.

In type checking the standard libraries we have found

the following:

● The type system has uncovered no errors. The kernel

libraries were written by Erlang “experts” - it seems

that good programmers don’t make type errors. It

will be interesting to see if this remains true when we

start type checking code written by less experienced

programmers.

201

●

Certain libraries (ordsets,

diet etc. ) passed the type

checker at the first attempt. The derived types corre-

sponded in most c~ses to our intuition of what the

derived types shouhl be.

Adding type declarations

(mostly for documel,tatioll purpose) was a trivial op-

eration.

Interestingly we could often remove a number of com-

ments and replace them by more precise type declara-

tions.

Thus in diet.erl we replaced comments like:

~~ fetch(Key, Diet) -> Value

find(Key, llict) -> {Olr,valuel I error

~~ store(Key, Value,

Diet) -> Diet’

With type declaration:

-deftype dict(Key, Val) = [{Key, Val}].

-type fetch(Key, dlct(Key, Val)) ->

Val.

-type find(Key, dlct(Key, Val)) ->

ok{Val} I error.

-type

store(Key, Val, dict(Key, Val)) ->

dict(Key, Val).

Which says the same thing only more precisely.

Many modules did not type check at the first attempt.

We had to re-write some functions or add unchecked

annotation to force the code through the type checker.

In complexmorlules about 10% ofthefunctions needed

small changes. In t}le vast majority of cases a small

change to the function corrected the type error. In a

minority ofcases we had to resort to adding unchecked

annotations.

Even iu the kernel system modules we

were able to provide readable types for the majority of

functions and not resort to the unchecked annotation.

uncheckedordy had to be used when the Erlang func-

tions contained primitives such as apply etc. which

could not be analysed by the type checker.

Debugging (i.e. fincling the source) of the type error

was i;-sorne’ cases extr&lely difficult. This proved to

be very frustrating. Well-tested programs which we

believed to be correct were rejected by the type checker

- finding exactly what was wrong was sometimes very

difficult.

6 The future

Where is the research leading us?

● Very large systems

How can we build very large systems? The prob-

lems associated wit h building very large systems seem

to have more to do with software architectures than

choice of programming language. We have found that

the use of program patterns (or higher order processes)

greatly helps users structure large software systems.

It has often been speculated that the advantages of a

strong type system will be seen in very large software

systems. We intend to test this hypothesis.

●

Evolving systems

As systems evolve and as we learn more we discover

better ways of programming things. Early design de-

cisions turn out to be wrong. We often wish to change

some of tbe major system interfaces which turned out

to be wrong,

Project managers worry about “backwards compati-

bility” and are very reluctant to accept changes to the

standard system software. Any change to the basic

system invalidates their test procedures and can delay

introduction of a new product. While in the short-

term is is desirable to keep the system as stable se

possible, in the long-term we must allow systems to

evolve and phase out old code and design decisions.

We are interested in techniques (for example, partial

evahration) that can simplify (orin the best case auto-

mate) the transition from an older to a newer version

of the system.

Performance

Certain applications cannot be efficiently programmed

in Erlang. We are considering adding imperative fea-

tures to the language to solve these problems,

7 Reflections

Erlanghas spread successfully from the laboratory toanum-

ber of commercial products. We can speculate se to the

reasons why this has occurred. Some of the more important

factors seem to be:

●

real problems

We work on real problems. We tend to make progress

when we cannot solve a particular problem with the

existing technology. Progress has often come when a

user came with a problem which could not be solved

in Erlang.

working within the organisation

We work within the Ericsson organisation. It is far

easier to “sell” an idea internally than to come to the

organisation from outside.

organisational support

There is a gap between the best that a laboratory with

limited resources can produce and what is minimally

acceptable for a commercial product. Ericsson has pro-

vided financial support and created new jobs as neces-

sary to help fill this gap.

we can provide good support

Good documentation, courses, e-mail, hot-line tele-

phone support etc. are essential in psasing from the

“enthusiast” to the “main-stream” phase of develop-

ment.

lots of tools

Project managers are not interested in programming

languages. They arenotinterested informal anything

and don’t give a hoot about types or calculi.

They are however, interested in short “time to mar-

ket” and in writing bug-free software. The provision

202

of large numbers of software tools can greatly reduce

software development times and improve the quality

of the software.

These tools are specific to our problem domain. Thus

we have tools for making SNMP MIBs, for nlanipulat-

ing ASN. 1 data ty])es, for building fault-tolerant du-

plicated data-bases with hot-standby etc.

● Foreign language interfaces

Typicaf systems are written

in severaf different lan-

guages. Erlang is not good at everything. Large parts

of a system might use purchased software packages

written in C. Efficient integration with C is essential

References

[1] .J. L. Armstrong, S. R. Virding and M. C. Williams. Use

of Prolog for developing a new programming language.

The Practical Application of Prolog London l-3 Aprif

1992

[2] J. L. Armstrong, M. C. Williams, C. Wikstromand S.

R. Virding.

Concurrent Programming in Erlang, 2nd

ed. Prentice Hall (1995)

[3] J. L. Armstrong. Erlang- Asurvey of thelanguage and

its industrial applications. In Proceedings of tire sym-

posium on industrial app./ications of Prolog (HVAP96).

16 – 18 October 1996. Hino, Tokyo Japan.

[4] J. L. Armstrong, B. Dicker, S. R. Virding, and M.

C. Williams, Implementing a

functional language for

highly paralfe] reaJ timeapplications. 8th Int Conf. on

Software Engineering for Telecommunication Switching

Systems, Florence 30 March-1 April 1992.

[s] B. Dicker, N. Elahiewy, P. Hedeland, C. W. Welin C.

W. and M. C. Williams. Experiments with Program-

ming Languages and Techniques for Telecommunica-

tion Applications. SixtJ~ International Conference on

Software Engineering for Telecommunication

Switching

Systems. Eindhoven, 1986.

[6] B. Hausman. Turbo Erlang: Approaching thespeedof

C.In Implementations of Logic Programming Systems,

pp. 119-135, ed. Evan Tick and Giancarlo Succi, Kluwer

Academic Publishers (1994).

[7] I. Foster and S. Taylor. STRAND: New Conceptsin

ParaUel Processing. Prentice Hall, 1989.

[8] S. Marlow, and P. Wadler. Apractical snbtyping sys-

tem for Erlang. In ACM International Conference on

Functional Programming, 1997.

[9] C. Wikstrom and H. Nilsson. Mnesia - An Industrial

DBMS with Transactions, Distribution and a Logicaf

Query Language. International Symposium on Coop

erative Databme S,ystems for Advanced Applications.

Kyoto Japan

1996

[10] K. Odling. New technology for prototyping new ser-

vices. In Ericsson Review No. 21993.

203

Discussion

The Ericsson MD110 is a PBX system (Private Branch Exchange), which allows companies to run private telephone networks allowing users to communicate internally and externally. I think it is interesting that [H|T] and {Key1, Val, S,B} (above) both rely on the fact that if they are not fully hydrated they do not pass. Means you can put the terminal condition at the bottom rather than being the first thing that needs be checked. CHILL is a procedural and object oriented programming language. Its design started in 1980 with the goal to become a standard to develop telecommunication systems. https://psc.informatik.uni-jena.de/languages/chill/chill.htm ### Agner Krarup Erlang Agner Erlang was a Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer, who pionnered the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory. By studying a village telephone exchange he worked out a formula, now known as Erlang's formula, to calculate the fraction of callers attempting to call someone outside the village that must wait because all of the lines are in use. ![](https://i.imgur.com/z1OeIFZ.jpg) *A.K. Erlang* ### Declarative vs Imperative programming These are two programming paradigms that dictate how you express the intended behavior of your program. A good way to think about it is: Declarative programming is when you state what you want, whereas in Imperative programming you say how to get what you want. Generally, functional programming languages are considered declarative languages. Some languages support both imperative and declarative styles. Consider the following examples in Python: ``` # Declarative - author does not specify implementation details small_nums = [x for x in range(20) if x < 10] # Imperative small_nums = [] for i in range(20): if i < 10: small_nums.append(i) ``` ### PROLOG PROLOG is a logic programming language (as opposed to an algorithmic language) conceived by Alain Colmerauer at the University of Aix-Marseille, France. The language was first implemented in 1973 and gained popularity in applications such as artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. Example PROLOG program: ``` man(socrates). mortal(X) :- man(X). ``` ### SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application–layer protocol for exchanging management information between network devices. In other words it a network protocol to manage and monitor network elements. It is a part of Transmission Control Protocol⁄Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite. It was formerly defined in [RFC1157](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1157) [Warren Abstract Machine (WAM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Abstract_Machine) is an abstract machine for the execution of Prolog code. The AXE10 is part of the AXE telephone exchange product line of circuit switched digital telephone exchanges. The meaning of the designation AXE is not completely clear, but most sources agree that Automatic experimental Electronic switch is the most likely interpretation. The first AXE system was deployed in 1976. The AXE10 system is still the most widely deployed switching system in the world. ![](https://i.imgur.com/utIzJ3c.jpg) *Ericsson AXE* Strand is a parallel programming language. The citation goes to a book but here is a link to a paper about Strand: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5395744 ### Hard Real Time vs Soft Real Time A real time system is a system that must react to stimuli from the controlled object (or the operator) within time intervals dictated by its environment. In other words, it's a system in which jobs / routines have a "deadline" that they have to finish by. You can subdivide real time systems into two categories: - **Hard Real Time Systems:** The operation will be incorrect (with possible disastrous consequences) if it is not completed according to the designed time constraint. e.g. Ballistic Missile, Air Traffic Control - **Soft Real Time Systems:** The system's operation is degraded if a job is not completed within the specific time requirement. e.g. Computer Game, Telephone System You can read more about the effort to create a type system for Erlang [here](https://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/wadler/papers/erlang/erlang.pdf). In the end, Erlang remains a dynamically typed language today. Amaizing work How do I download the paper for study and future use? Will I be violating any copyright issues? I will give credits while referring to the paper. See the notice below: > Permission to make digital/hard copy of part or all this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advan- tage, the copyright notice, the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. *JAM* stands for Joe's Abstract Machine It's important to underline that even tho Erlang is a language that is now used for a variety of applications its origins are very much connected to the need to solve a specific problem (as oppose to a more academic pursuit). As the author mentions, engineers at Ericsson were working on developing the next generation of telecom systems and were faced with a number of challenges: - massive scale - strict reliability requirements - complex systems (millions of lines of code) I wonder if this is still true? I would say that most software engineering is moving towards the amateur. PLEX (Programming Language for EXchanges) is a special-purpose, proprietary, real-time programming language. The language was developed by Göran Hemdahl at Ericsson in the 1970s. PLEX has been described as "a cross between Fortran and a macro assembler". It is an imperative language, with assignments, conditionals, goto’s, and a restricted iteration construct. It does lack some common statements from other programming languages such as while loops, negative numeric values and real numbers. Even tho Ericsson's market share in the mobile phone market declined significantly since this paper was published, Ericsson is still one of the worlds largest suppliers of telecom equipment. ![](https://i.imgur.com/RTud8Ts.png) BEAM is the virtual machine at the core of the Erlang Open Telecom Platform (OTP). BEAM (Bogdan's Erlang Abstract Machine) was effectively the successor to JAM (Joe's Abstract Machine). Today there are a number of languages that leverage BEAM: - Erlang - Elixir - LFE - Alpaca - Gleam Further notes on the basic syntax of Erlang: ``` -module(math). ``` This is the file 'math.erl', the module and the filename must match ``` -export([fac/1]). ``` This exports the function 'fac' of arity 1 (1 parameter, no type, no name) ``` fac(N) when N > 0 -> N * fac(N-1); ``` If N > 0 recursively call the `fac` function, otherwise advance to next clause (the semicolon ; indicates `else`) ``` fac(0) -> 1. ``` If 0, then return 1 (period . means `endif`) PABX stands for *Private Automatic Branch Exchange* which is a technology which allows businesses to have a single access number to provide several lines to outside callers while providing a range of external lines to internal callers or staff. PABX performs all the switching necessary for making internal calls between extensions within the organizations.

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