[samvher]

Not sure if you're asking, but I'm not repeating someone else's rumor. I started the set-up I work with using hot loading (after all that is one of the things that attracts to Erlang) where I mean just reloading modules on the VM. Unfortunately I would get module order wrong from time to time or I would forget dependencies, and I've seen many badfun errors as well (I admit I used too many anonymous functions). With only 1 node doing the work (I haven't used Erlang on large clusters) that's a bit more risk and those problems have gone away completely since I switched to a strategy where the whole system just stops and starts.

[strmpnk]

I see. Fair enough. It's definitely something I know can work but like most things it does take work and sometimes it's not worth the trade in effort for the capabilities one might gain otherwise.

Badfun errors are a great example of something tricky if you're not used to thinking about how the compiler translates these to private functions via lambda lifting. It's the same reason funs are not something you should rush to pass around over a disterl cluster. Recursive functions which keep fun's around in a loop also become a problem if they're long lived.

I usually point out that first class modules or MFA tuples are more idiomatic in Erlang than opaque first class functions as values but we're off into the weeds here. It's a good example of where effort and gotchas become a barrier for many.