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ThedevelopmentofErlang 
JoeArmstrong ComputerScienceLaboratory EricssonTelecomAB  joe@cslab.ericsson.se 
Abstract 
Thispaperdescribesthedevelopmentoftheprogramming languageErlangduringtheperiod1985-1997.Erlangisaconcurrentprogramminglanguagedesigned forprogramminglarge-scaledistributedsoftreal-timecon- trolapplications.ThedesignofErlangwasheavilyinuencedbyideasfrom thelogicandfunctionalprogrammingcommunities.Other sourcesofinspirationcamefromlanguagessuchasChilland Adawhichareusedinindustryforprogrammingcontrol systems.
1Introduction 
ThispaperdescribesthedevelopmentoftheErlangpro- gramminglanguage.Erlangisalanguagewhichdrawsheav- ilyfromvarioustraditionsinthelogic,functionalandreal- timecontrolprogrammingcommunities.Ourgoalwastomakealanguagewhichcouldbeused forbuildinglargesoftreal-timecontrolsystems.BylargeI meansystemswithpossiblymillionsoflinesofcode.Bya softreal-timesystemImeanasystemwhichdoesnotfail catastrophicallyifareal-timedeadlineismissed.Erlangwasdevelopedbytheauthorandhiscolleagues attheEricssonComputerScienceLaboratory.Ericssonis currentlytheworld'slargestsupplieroftelecomssystems andtheworld'sleadingmanufacturerofmobilephones.Ericsson'sagshipproductisatelephoneexchangecalled theAXE10whichisprogrammedinaproprietarylanguage calledPLEX.AtypicalAXE10systemhasover5million linesofPLEX.TheAXE10isspeciedtohaveadown time"oflessthan3minutesperyear-suchrequirements arecommoninthetelecomsindustry.Theprogramminglanguageswhichareusedforbuilding suchsystemshavetodealwitharangeofproblemsnotusu- allyencounteredintraditionalbatchorinteractivecomputer systems.Forexample,onerequirementisthatthesystem shouldbeincontinuous"operation-thismeanswemust dosoftwareupgradeswithoutstoppingthesystem.Italso impliestheuseoffault-tolerantprocessorsandasoftware architecturewhichprotectstheintegrityofthesystemfrom variousclassesofprogrammererror.Erlanggrewoutofaseriesofexperimentswhichweper- formedtoseeifwecouldndbetterwaysofprogramming telecomssystems.Ourcriterionforsuccesswasthatwe couldprogramtelecomssystemswithlesseortandfewer errorsthancouldbedoneusingconventionaltechnology.Thispaperstartswithabriefdiscussionofthevarious milestoneswhichthelanguagewentthrough.Thisisfol- lowedbysectionsdescribingthelanguage,nallyfuturedi- rectionsofresearcharementioned.
2Milestones 
 
Earlyexperiments 
Beingatelecomslaboratorywewereinthefortunate positionofalwayshavinghardwaretoplaywith.The labhadaEricssonMD110whichisasmalltelephone exchangewhichhadbeenmodiedsoitcouldbe controlledbyaconventionalUnixmachine.Wepro- grammedPOTS 
1 
inasmanyprogramminglanguages aswecouldlayourhandson.Themainconclusion5wasthatdeclarativelanguage programsforPOTSwerealotshorterandeasierto understandthanimperativelanguageprograms.Un- fortunatelythedeclarativelanguageslackedfeatures forconcurrencycontrolandhadpoorerrorhandling facilities.WeconcludedthatwewouldlikesomethinglikePro- logwithaddedfacilitiesforconcurrencyandimproved errorhandling.Nosuchlanguageexistedatthetime.
 
1986-1989TheProloginterpreter 
HavingdecidedthatwelikedPrologforprogramming POTSwestartedaseriesofexperimentscallLOTS LotsofPOTStoprogramnotonlyPOTSbutalso anextremelylargenumberofdierenttelephonyfea- turesinProlog.BeforelongIhadprogrammedalarge subsetofPABXfeaturesinProlog.TodosoIwrote aPrologmeta-interpretorwhichaddedthenotionof aprocesstoPrologandwhichaddedfacilitiesforad- vancederrordetectionandrecovery.Thisworkisde- scribedin1.
 
TheBollmoragroup 
UsingtheresultsoftheworkwiththeProloginterpre- torwewereabletoattractthecuriosityandinterestof agroupofengineers 
2 
whowereresponsibleforafuture softwarearchitectureoftheEricssonMD110.
1 
POTSstandsforPlainOldTelephonyService,thatis,subscriber AcallssubscriberBandtheychatforawhile.
2 
WhoworkedinBollmora,Stockholm.
 
Thisgroupthoughtthattheycoulduseourresultsas avehicleforinvestigatingtheirownsoftwarearchitec- tures.Thisbeganaperiodofcollaborationwhichled tothedevelopmentofErlangasafullyedgedlan- guageandtoanewrangeofEricssonproducts.Duringtheperiod1986-1988membersofthecomputer sciencelabworkedcloselywiththeBollmoragroup,meetingonceortwiceaweek.Duringthistimethe Prologinterpretorandthelanguagewhichitdened changedrapidly.Thelanguagegrewandevolvedand somewherealongthelineacquiredaname,Erlang,namedinhonoroftheDanishmathematicianAgner KrarupErlang18781929whosenameisassociated withthetelecomsindustry.
 
Thejammachine 
Byabout1988iswasclearthatErlangasitwasnow calledwasagoodlanguageforprototypingtelephone exchanges10.Itwasastrangemixture,withdeclar- ativefeaturesinheritedfromProlog,multi-tasking andconcurrencyinheritedfromEriPascalandAda andanoriginalcombinationoferrorhandlingmecha- nisms.Erlangwas,however,fartooslowtobeusedforprod- uctdevelopment.TheBollmoragroupdidsomemea- surementsanddecidedthatforproductdevelopment theyneededasystemthatwas40timesfasterthan theProloginterpretor.Thisrequirementleadtothedevelopmentofanumber ofdierentabstractmachinesandcompilationtech- niquesusedforimplementingErlang.Acrosscompiler fromErlangtoStrand7wasdeveloped.Afteranum- berofexperimentstheJAM4machinewasinvented.ThiswasbasedontheWarrenAbstractMachinewith addedprimitivesforconcurrencyandexceptionhan- dling.BythistimetheErlangeorthadgrowntothreepeo- ple.MikeWilliamswroteabytecodeemulatorfor JAMcode,IwrotethecompilerandRobertVirding wrotethesupportlibraries.Whileweonlyeverdistributedoneversionofthesys- temtoexternalusers,internallytherewereseveral competingErlangengines"whereweexperimented withdierentimplementationtechniques.TheresultingJAMimplementationwasdeliveredto theBollmoragroupin1989.Fortunatelyitwas70 timesfasterthantheoriginalProloginterpretor-un- fortunatelytheyhadnowrevisedtheiroriginalesti- matesandwantedamachinethatwas280timesfaster thantheoriginal.
 
Addingdistribution 
Duringtheperiod1989-1994theErlanggroup"ex- pandedtherehasneverbeenaformalgroup.Claes Vikstr omjoinedthegroupin1990andaddeddistribu- tiontothelanguage.Theoriginallanguagehadbeen designedwithhooks"foraddingdistribution-but thiswasneveractuallydoneuntilClaesimplemented it.TheBollmoragrouphadnowdecidedtogoahead andbuildanewPABXinErlang.Erlangwasn'tfast enoughbutitwasgenerallythoughtthattheperfor- manceproblemscouldbesolved.In1992theystarted developmentofaproductcalledtheMobilityServer".In1995thiswaslaunchedandbecamepartofthe Consono"productrange.Atthetimeofwritingthe MobilityServerismarketedin12countries.Among otherthingsitisusedtocontroltheDECTmobile phoneintheEuropeanParliamentinStrasbourg.
 
Fightforacceptance 
Duringtheperiod1992-1996itwasbynomeansclear thatErlangwassuitableforprogramminglarge-scale industrialproducts.Whilewewereverysuccessfulin anumberofsmallprojects,Erlangprogrammingand programmersstillrepresentedaverysmallpercentage oftheprogrammingeortatEricsson.TheMobilityserverprojectcontinuedandweattracted severalnewsmallprojects.Duringthistimewewere involvedinmassiveguerillamarketing"activities.I don'tthinktherewasasinglepersoninEricssonwho evercameoutofBjarne's 
3 
ocewithoutacopyofthe Erlangmanualundertheirarm!
 
Thebeam 
Performancehasalwaysbeenamajorproblem.In 1992BogumilHausmanstartedworkontheBEAM.
4 
TheBEAMcompilesErlangtoCwhichcanthenbe compiledwithaconventionalCcompiler.TheBEAM canalsocompiletothreadedcodewhichcanbefreely intermixedwithcompiledcode.Compiledcodeisfasterbuttakesupmorespacethan threadedcode.Inalargeembeddedsystemwithmil- lionsoflinesofcode,thevolumeofobjectcodecanbe amajorproblem.Infrequentlyusedandnon-performancecriticalparts ofthesystemcanbecompiledtothreadedcodewhile performancecriticalpartsofthesystemcanbecom- piledtonativecode.Thereareperformancetools whichwecanusetoanalysethesystemandndout whichpartsofthesystemneedtobenativecodecom- piled.TheBEAMisdescribedin6.Inmanyapplications theBEAMiscomparablewithCinperformanceterms.TheBEAMreplacedtheJAMastheprinciplesystem fornewproductdevelopmentin1997.
 
ErlangSystems 
Upto1995mostuserswereenthusiasts"andErlang spreadinternallywithinEricssonbywordofmouth".Wedidn'tndnewusers,theyfoundus.Asthelanguagespreadweneededtoproducetraining materialandholdcoursestotrainnewusers.Initially,allcourseswereheldattheComputerScienceLabby membersoftheErlanggroup".Whileholdingsuch courseswasgreatfun,demandsoonfaroutstripped supply.InApril1993anewcompanyErlangSystems"was formedtohandlesales,marketing,educationandcon- sultingofErlang.Wehadbeeninthefortunateposi- tionofhavingsupervisedanumberofMasterdegree 
3 
Bossofthecomputersciencelab.
4 
Bogdans'sErlangAbstractmachine.
 
studentsincomputerscienceattheUniversityofUp- psala.HavingcompletedaMastersdegreemanyof thesestudentswereemployedbyErlangSystems.MikeWilliamsmovedfromtheComputerScienceLab- oratorytomanageErlangSystemsandhadsoonbuilt upastrongteamofconsultantsandimpressivetrain- ingfacilities.In1996over500Ericssonprogrammers attendedcoursesatErlangSystems.Erlangconsultingisoneofthemostimportantfactors thathaveledtothespreadofErlangwithinEricsson.IntherstErlangprojectstherewasveryclosecontact betweenthedevelopersandtheusers.Weknewevery userandcouldprovideindividualhelpandtuition- thisdoesn'tscale.Now,whenwestartanewproject,wealwaystryto getatleasttwoErlangSystemsconsultantsworking ontheproject.Theyprovideavitallinkbetweenthe usersanddevelopersofErlang.Thisisasignicant factorinthesuccessofnewprojects.Itisalsointerestingtonotethattheskilllevelrequired foranentry-levelindustrialprogrammerhasincreased inrecentyears.Agooddegreeincomputerscienceis nowapre-conditionforworkingwithstateoftheart softwaretechnology.Thedaysoftheamateurhacker arefastdisappearing.
 
Thetools 
ThecurrentErlangsystemcomeswithanextensive toolkit.Aswellastheobvioussoftwaretoolsyacc,lexlook-a-likesetc.thereisawiderangeoftools whichareusefulforbuildingtelecomsapplications.Theseincludethingslikecross-compilersforinterfac- ingErlangtoforeignlanguageapplications,anASN.1 interfacecompiler,anSNMPtool-kit,aHTTP-server etc.ManyofthenewusersofErlangarenotinitiallyat- tractedbythelanguagebutratherbythesetoftools whichcomeswiththelanguage.Forexample,itis extremelyeasytobuildanSNMPapplicationusing theErlangSNMPtoolkit.TheSNMPtoolkit,forex- ample,containsaMIBcompiler,andsetofdefault methodswhichallowsanon-expertusertobuildan SNMPagentinamatterofhours.Doingthisina conventionallanguageismuchmoredicult.Manyoftherstversionsofthetoolswerewrittenby studentsaspartoftheirMasterthesiswork.
 
Mnesia 
Manyreal-timeapplicationsneedaccesstodataover longperiodsoftime.Forexample,inatelephone exchangesubscriberdatamustbestoredformany yearsandmustbeaccessiblewithinafewmillisec- onds.Chargingdatatelephonebillsmustbekept andneverlost.Mnesia9isareal-timedistributeddatabasedesigned forprogrammingtelecomsapplicationsinErlang.Am- nesiaiswrittenentirelyinErlang.
 
OTP 
On1January1996anewEricssondivisionwascreated tosupportapplicationswritteninErlang.Ourusers wantalotmorethanjustaprogramminglanguage.Forexample,someuserswantnotonlythelanguage butalsotheoperatingsystemsandthehardwareplat- formtobedeliveredinonepackage.TheOTPOpenTelecomPlatformdivisioncanpro- videEricssonuserswithanythingfromasimpleErlang systemwhichrunsonaPCtoanembeddedsystem completewithhardware.Thedivisionhasthegoal ofprovidingprospectiveuserswithaturn-keysystem whichtheycanturnonandstartprogrammingfrom dayoneofaproject.StandardOTPsoftwarecomes withextensivelibrarieswhichsolvecommonapplica- tionproblems.AnothergoaloftheOTPdivisionwastotransferre- sponsibilityforthemaintenanceandsupportofthe ErlangsystemfromtheComputerScienceLaboratory toamainstreamEricssondivision.
3Erlangin14Examples 
TheprevioussectionsdescribedthedevelopmentofErlang.ThefollowingsectionsdescribeErlangthroughanumberof smallexamples.
3.1SequentialErlang Example1-Factorial 
Allfunctionsaredenedinmodules,forexample,factorial canbewritten:
-modulemath. -exportfac1. facNwhenN0-N*facN-1; fac0-1. 
Theannotation 
-exportfac1 
meansthefunction 
fac 
withoneargumentisfromthemodule.Onlyexported functionscanbecalledfromoutsidethemodule.Onceamodulehasbeenloadedintothesystemthequery evaluatorcanbeusedforfunctionevaluation:
math:fac25. 15511210043330985984000000 
Example2-BinaryTree 
lookupKey,Key,Val,_,_- ok,Val; lookupKey,Key1,Val,S,BwhenKeyKey1- lookupKey,S; lookupKey,Key1,Val,S,B- lookupKey,B; lookupKey,nil- not_found. 
Herethe 
tuple 
Key,Val,S,B 
representsanodeofa binarytree.Tuplesstorexednumbersofarguments.
Example3-Append 
appendH|T,L-H|appendT,L; append,L-L. 
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