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by dragonwriter 3021 days ago
> So far as I know, you literally cannot implement a language with mutability on the VM.

You could do so, several different ways, e.g.:

(1) use the process dictionary,

(2) store data transparently to the new language’s user in ets (or, similarly, dets/mnesia),

(3) use separate (again, hidden from the language user) Erlang processes for mutable cells.

You can't get hig-performance mutability, but you can definitely implement a language with mutability on BEAM.