CODEWITHSUNDEEP
erlangbootstrapping
CDR
CDR

Reputation: 8408

What is Erlang written in?

What is Ericsson's implementation of Erlang and Erlang/OTP written and compiled in? Is is assembly, C or Erlang itself?

Update 1: Thanks to DrJokepu. If I understand correctly, Erlang source-to-VM compiler is written in Erlang itself. But the VM is written in C.

Update 2: Hynek-Pichi-Vychodil pointed out a lot of details.

Upvotes: 117

Views: 17043

Answers (5)

wallace
wallace

Reputation: 21

We can know the history of Erlang and its toolchain from A Brief History of the BEAM Compiler (by Björn Gustavsson) And A History of Erlang (by Joe Armstrong) now.

Upvotes: 2

Gad Iradufasha
Gad Iradufasha

Reputation: 133

I can say that Erlang was initially written in C/C++ as I can't say that Java is written in java.... but It's framework and Some libraries. About Erlang, As Its is preferred programming language and suitable for Telecom system... in order to maintain swiftness (e.g: in chat-bots) I know that its compiler or PreProcessor is written in Erlang. But Other features of language are written in Low Level languages.

Upvotes: 0

Tamas Czinege
Tamas Czinege

Reputation: 121314

From the Erlang FAQ:

10.6 How did the first Erlang compiler get written?

(or: how was Erlang bootstrapped?) In Joe's words:

First I designed an abstract machine to execute Erlang. This was called the JAM machine; JAM = Joe's Abstract Machine.

Then I wrote a compiler from Erlang to JAM and an emulator to see if the machine worked. Both these were written in prolog.

At the same time Mike Williams wrote a C emulator for the JAM.

Then I rewrote the erlang-to-jam compiler in Erlang and used the prolog compiler to compile it. The resultant object code was run in the C emulator. Then we threw away prolog.

Upvotes: 98

Hynek -Pichi- Vychodil
Hynek -Pichi- Vychodil

Reputation: 26121

Erlang itself is written in Erlang. Sounds strange? Yes, because it is only partially true. OK look at it in more detail:

  1. Erlang preprocessor is written in Erlang.
  2. Erlang parser is written in Erlang.
  3. Erlang compiler to BEAM (byte-code VM) is written in Erlang.
  4. Erlang compiler to HiPE (native VM extension) is written in Erlang.
  5. Erlang VM BEAM and HiPE is written mostly in C.
  6. Linked-in drivers are written mostly in C. (They are plugged to VM and serves communication with outside world.)
  7. OTP is written in Erlang.
  8. Another ports or nodes can be written in any language.

Upvotes: 155

Saeed Zarinfam
Saeed Zarinfam

Reputation: 10180

  • 65.9% of erlang code is written in Erlang.
  • 13.4% of erlang is written in XML.
  • 13.6% of erlang is written in C.
  • 1.4% of erlang is written in C++
  • ...

You can see a live and update statistics in ohloh site, this report generate from main erlang git repository.

Upvotes: 17

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