Thread: Does managed code make people stupid?

Originally Posted by Mario F.

I could for instance take advantage of the apparently more streamlined multithreading (or even traffic/queue) support of Erlang by writing whatever engine I needed in Erlang and expose it through a dll I could call from C++, no?

This might be tough; erlang has a mechanism called 'ports' which let Erlang communicate with non-erlang languages, and as well, you can also write linked-in drivers for the erlang runtime which will essentially give you a foreign function interface, but beyond that I do not think it's possible to link the erlang virtual machine itself into something like a library/shared object. Here are some resources that might provide some information in that area, though:

http://www.erlang.org/doc/
http://www.trapexit.org/

Specifically you will want to look at the 'interoperability tutorial' on the erlang.org documentation pages.

Well I do know reading Mad_guy's post makes me feel dumb.

Do not be disheartened, I am extremely weak at things like math (when I go to uni. for the first time in a month or so I'll only be doing algebra)! I tried as I could to make the above post approachable to those who do not have first hand experience with a language like haskell, and if you have questions I would be happy to answer and can likely explain it to you in easier terms. :]

Originally Posted by Mad_guy

but beyond that I do not think it's possible to link the erlang virtual machine itself into something like a library/shared object

I was thinking more on the line of something like HiPE (pdf). I understand this is for SPARC, but my readings tell me there's a x86 Linux version too. I assumed before there would be a Windows version, but it seems there are problems implementing one.

Today, I mostly use MATLAB for development, which is an "extremely managed" language. Nevertheless, it come with a JIT compiler and some projects, written in a couple of days, would take months to write faster (or at all!) in C or C++, due to the heavily optimized standard libraries.

I don't know about Haskell, though. As far as I know, it's not very widely used.

I understand this is for SPARC, but my readings tell me there's a x86 Linux version too. I assumed before there would be a Windows version, but it seems there are problems implementing one.

HiPE is now apart of the standard erlang distribution. But it doesn't generate an object-file; it generates a 'fat binary' with the native code alongside the regular BEAM code that is in a .beam file. When you run it, the native code is executed instead.

There doesn't seem to be much of a push to get it on windows, however.

As far as I know, it's not very widely used.

For appropriate definitions of "widely," sure. Regardless it still has an active community, is growing every day and (I think, anyway) offers an elegant solution to many problems.

Plus learning it will expand your brain, even if you don't use it much for your day-job (I think similarly of other languages like prolog and erlang.) I don't think haskell will ever become truly mainstream; it's greatest legacy will be the impact it has on other languages. :]