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San Francisco, CA, January 10, 2013—Erlang is a fast-growing functional programming language used by companies like Facebook, Yahoo!, and T-Mobile. The language is sought after for its built-in support for concurrency, distribution, and fault tolerance, but its idiosyncrasies can seem spooky and mysterious for first-time learners.

In Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good! (No Starch Press, January 2013, 624 pp., $49.95, ISBN 9781593274351), author Fred Hébert breaks down the complexities of the language for new users. Hébert—named "Erlang User of the Year" in 2012—keeps the subject matter engaging by using practical examples, clever analogies, and quirky illustrations. What better way to learn about recursive lists in Erlang than seeing them drawn as cute, segmented earthworms? Written in a casual, friendly manner, each chapter guides readers through valuable topics like building applications, common data structures, event handlers, working with OTP, and more.

"Erlang's got a lot going for it: concurrency, parallelism, distributed computing, an original approach to fault tolerance. It is often hard to learn due to how unique it is, and there's a lot of hype that surrounds it," says author Fred Hébert. "Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good! aims to make sense of these topics in an honest and fun way."

Hailed by Robert Virding, co-creator of Erlang, as a "complete description of the Erlang language," Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good! will teach readers how to:

Test applications with EUnit and Common Test
Build and release applications with the OTP framework
Pass messages, raise errors, and start/stop processes over many nodes
Store and retrieve data using Mnesia and ETS
Network program with TCP, UDP, and the inet module
Experience the simple joys and potential pitfalls of writing distributed, concurrent applications

Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good! eases readers into this sometimes-tricky language and prepares them to unleash the dark magic that makes Erlang such a hot topic among today's savvy developers.

About the Author

Fred Hébert is a self-taught programmer who used to teach Erlang. He is currently working on a real-time bidding platform and was named Erlang User of the Year 2012. His online tutorial, Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good!, is widely regarded as the best way to learn Erlang.

Fred Hébert is available for radio, TV, print, and online interviews. Please contact [email protected].

About No Starch Press
Founded in 1994, No Starch Press publishes the finest in geek entertainment—unique books on technology, with a focus on open source, security, hacking, programming, alternative operating systems, LEGO, science, and math. Our titles have personality, our authors are passionate, and our books tackle topics that people care about. No Starch Press titles have been included in the prestigious Communication Arts Design Annual and STEP Inside 100 competition, and have won the Independent Publisher Book Award (the "IPPYs") from Independent Publisher magazine. Visit http://www.nostarch.com for a complete catalog.

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