Comment by doktrin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doktrin | Hacker News Reader

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> You're looking at something that is really well-known. What does the website of Google convey?

The Google comparison is comical. You are wildly over-estimating how well known Erlang is, even in the dev community.

> Do you really decide whether you'd learn a language by looking at its website?

Most devs learn a new language when it helps them solve a problem. Anyone who needs to solve the problems that Erlang addresses has already at least looked at Erlang.

This thread was also directed at those who have never used Erlang. Starting with the Erlang website makes eminent sense.

Specific example :

Compare the Erland and Rust websites. I've never used Rust or Erlang. I can confidently say that the Rust website does a better job of familiarizing a new user with the language. It's not just a matter of the Rust syntax being C-derived, either. It's simply harder to find any useful information on the Erlang website.

Rust :

    * code sample on landing page  
    * comprehensive tutorial linked directly from landing page

Erlang :

    * no code on landing page  
    * "quick start guide" which is basically a link to a non-free book 
    * Getting to actual code requires 3-4 clicks from the landing page
    * e.g. Documentation -> Course -> Sequential Programming

Conclusion : The Erlang website isn't as useful as that of at least 1 other non-mainstream language.

The last thing Erlang should put on its website to get new uses is Erlang source. Certainly the most off putting part of it.

That is a great idea, assuming the new users of Erlang will continue to be able avoiding Erlang code

> Starting with the Erlang website makes eminent sense

Of course it does. But stopping at the Erlang website because of the website makes much less sense. Find some other way to know more about the language and then decide whether you'll use it or not.

Remember that the title of this thread is "Why isn't Erlang more popular?", not "Why Erlang is so great you'll try multiple times to seek out documentation for it".

>You are wildly over-estimating how well known Erlang is, even in the dev community

Well, it's pretty well known in the competent dev community. Some guy doing CRUD apps for some enterprise might not know it, true.

lol. This silly elitism needs to die.

Why, because all programming endeavours are equally hard or important, and all programmers have equal skills?

In this make believe scenario, the world is divided neatly into opposing camps of "competent devs" and "enterprise CRUD devs". It's dismissive, cheap analysis at its best. It's a straw man whose only real purpose is to embolden us with a smug sense of superiority.

It's also empirically correct.

I've worked for enterprise.

Also I didn't say it is divided "neatly". Why do people always assume that when you talk about a group of people being Y, all of them must be Y?

It's enough that the statistical majority of them be Y (e.g 90% of enterprise developers not really knowing about the wider world outside enterprise software practices). That there will be exceptions it's obvious -- there are exceptions everywhere.

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