2. Overview

2 Overview

2.1 Built-In Mechanisms

Two interoperability mechanisms are built into the Erlang runtime system, distributed Erlang and ports. A variation of ports is linked-in drivers.

Distributed Erlang

An Erlang runtime system is made a distributed Erlang node by giving it a name. A distributed Erlang node can connect to, and monitor, other nodes. It can also spawn processes at other nodes. Message passing and error handling between processes at different nodes are transparent. A number of useful STDLIB modules are available in a distributed Erlang system. For example, global, which provides global name registration. The distribution mechanism is implemented using TCP/IP sockets.

When to use: Distributed Erlang is primarily used for Erlang-Erlang communication. It can also be used for communication between Erlang