Erlang/OTP
Erlang/OTP[edit]
Erlang/OTP (Open Telecom Platform) is a suite of libraries, modules, and tools for building massively scalable, fault-tolerant, and distributed systems. It provides a solid foundation for the development of concurrent Erlang applications by offering a set of ready-to-use components and abstractions.
Overview[edit]
Erlang/OTP is built on top of the Erlang programming language, developed by Ericsson. It introduces a set of design principles and practices aimed at simplifying the development of reliable and efficient systems. The core ideas behind Erlang/OTP are:
- Actor Model: Concurrency is managed through lightweight, isolated processes called actors, which communicate by exchanging messages.
- Supervision Tree: Fault tolerance is achieved using a hierarchical structure of supervised processes. Failures in child processes can be automatically handled and recovered from.
- Hot Code Loading: Erlang/OTP supports upgrading running systems without any downtime. New versions of code can be loaded dynamically, ensuring smooth and continuous operation.
- OTP Behaviors: Behaviors are generic programming interfaces that provide common functionalities and conventions for building fault-tolerant systems. Examples of OTP behaviors include supervisors, gen_servers, and gen_fsm.
Key Components[edit]
Erlang/OTP is composed of several key components. Some of the most important ones are:
- **OTP Modules**: A wide range of modules for managing processes, message passing, error handling, and more.
- **Erlang/OTP Libraries**: A collection of libraries providing utilities for tasks such as networking, database access, parsing, and memory management.
- **OTP Behaviors**: A set of behavior modules that define callback functions and conventions for building generic components like supervisors, gen_servers, state machines, and event handlers.
- **Application Framework**: The OTP application framework allows developers to structure their systems into self-contained applications, each with its own supervision tree.
- **Release Handling**: Erlang/OTP includes tools for packaging applications into releases. A release is a self-contained bundle including code, configuration, and runtime environment.
Use Cases[edit]
Erlang/OTP has been used to build a wide range of systems, from telecommunication networks and financial trading platforms to multiplayer online games and social media applications. Its fault-tolerant design and ability to handle massive concurrency make it well-suited for creating reliable and scalable distributed applications.
See Also[edit]
- Erlang (programming language)
- Concurrency (computer science)
- Fault Tolerance
- Supervisor (computer science)
- Gen Server
- Gen FSM