[defined]

I dispute that Erlang has a huge barrier to entry. Although there is a larger barrier than for, say, Python or Ruby, I feel that Erlang gets an undeservedly bad rap, especially given the ROI.

I am no genius, but I was able circa 2008 to develop a significant production system in Erlang, while learning Erlang on the job over a period of 3-4 months. I had never programmed in a functional language before (C++ was my forte). In 2008, the tooling and environment surrounding Erlang was far less supportive than it is today, so the barrier now should be lower.

If you want to talk about a huge barrier to entry (for me, anyway), it's the Great Wall of Haskell. I found it a great deal harder to learn Haskell. I have only written one small utility in it and still don't claim to know the language. And that's after using Erlang for many years.

Also, these days, Elixir is reputed to lower whatever barrier to entry there is for Erlang.

[hvidgaard]

Haskell is less about the "language" and more about the mindset. You simply have to program in a very different way, and that is hard to rewire your brain to do this. Once you learn Haskell, you will program different in other languages as well, simply because you think differently.

[gkya]

> circa 2008 to develop a significant production system in Erlang

Is that whatsapp by any chance? ;)

[defined]

Not nearly that significant! I wish!