New Erlang Blog by Joe Armstrong

There's big news in the Erlang blogsphere.

Today, Joe Armstrong, one of Erlang's original creators ("The" creator of Erlang?), started a new blog in which he'll write about the events and people that have shaped Erlang's history, as well as the stories that will shape its future.

This is very exciting. Until today, the most comprehesive source for Erlang history I've read has been Joe's PhD thesis. However, as you might expect, although this paper is very rich in technical material, it doesn't dwell too much on the human side. Now, we'll be able to know more about the Erlang story from the perspective of a true insider.

Judging by the substance and humor of Joe's mailing list postings, which I sometimes quote on this blog, I'd bet that Joe's blog will be a great read.

I hope more people follow in Joe's footsteps and start blogging about Erlang. Many people on the Erlang mailing list are far more knowledgable about Erlang -- and other programming languages (well, maybe except for Ruby and haXe :) ) -- than I am. Many of them are also great writers. If they started blogging, it would make the Erlang blogsphere much richer.

I get much of my knowledge about Erlang from reading mailing list postings, but this kind of knowledge isn't very accessible to non-Erlangers. Blogging is a better tool for spreading the word to the outside world. Blogs also can be less technical and more open-ended than mailing list postings, in which one follows a stricter etiquette in trying to stick to the point and not waste too much of people's time. A blog, on the other hand, is what you make of it. If a blog is good, people discover it and its importance grows. If a blog sucks, at least people have the option of ignoring it :)

The best part of Joe's announcement, at least for me, is that he credited me with inspiring him to start blogging. Reading these words made me feel very honored.

Yariv's blog http://yarivsblog.com/ with his frequent Erlang postings
has inspired me.

I think he needs a little competition :-)

So I've started writing ...

In this blog I'll try to tell you some of the things that are happening in the Erlang world. A lot of stuff is happening behind the scenes, I'll try to tell you about some of this.

The first post is:

http://armstrongonsoftware.blogspot.com/2006/08/making-money-from-erlang.html

Cheers

/Joe

When I stared this blog, I really didn't have very high expectations, so it's thrilling to see this blog make a real impact on the Erlang world. (I hope that the world outside has taken notice as well :) )

Getting credit is great, but giving it is even better: it was Joel Reymont's wagerlabs.com blog which has turned a mild curiousity about Erlang into a strong interest for me and also inspired me to start blogging about Erlang.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention -- Joe will also blog about cats. I must not forget the cats! :)

Happy RSSing! :)