path: root/system/doc/getting_started/intro.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">

<chapter>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2003</year><year>2009</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
      The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
      Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
      compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
      Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
      retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
    
      Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
      basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
      the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
      under the License.
    
    </legalnotice>

    <title>Introduction</title>
    <prepared></prepared>
    <docno></docno>
    <date></date>
    <rev></rev>
    <file>intro.xml</file>
  </header>

  <section>
    <title>Introduction</title>
    <p>This is a "kick start" tutorial to get you started with Erlang.
      Everything here is true, but only part of the truth. For example,
      I'll only tell you the simplest form of the syntax, not all
      esoteric forms. Where I've greatly oversimplified things I'll
      write *manual* which means there is lots more information to be
      found in the Erlang book or in the <em>Erlang Reference Manual</em>.</p>
    <p>I also assume that this isn't the first time you have touched a
      computer and you have a basic idea about how they are programmed.
      Don't worry, I won't assume you're a wizard programmer.</p>
  </section>

  <section>
    <title>Things Left Out</title>
    <p>In particular the following has been omitted:</p>
    <list type="bulleted">
      <item>References</item>
      <item>Local error handling (catch/throw)</item>
      <item>Single direction links (monitor)</item>
      <item>Handling of binary data (binaries / bit syntax)</item>
      <item>List comprehensions</item>
      <item>How to communicate with the outside world and/or software
       written in other languages (ports). There is however a separate
       tutorial for this, <em>Interoperability Tutorial</em></item>
      <item>Very few of the Erlang libraries have been touched on (for
       example file handling)</item>
      <item>OTP has been totally skipped and in consequence the Mnesia
       database has been skipped.</item>
      <item>Hash tables for Erlang terms (ETS)</item>
      <item>Changing code in running systems</item>
    </list>
  </section>
</chapter>