Lambda Goes to Hollywood

摘要

In this paper, some experiences of using the concurrent functional language Erlang to implement a distributed video-on-demand server are presented. This server is the result of a project supported by a regional cable company, and it is intended to provide services for real users in the real world. The nature of the problem, with fuzzy and changing requirements, suggests a highly flexible and scalable architecture. The use of abstractions (functional patterns) and compositionality (both functional and concurrent composition) have been key factors to reduce the amount of time spent adapting the system to changes in requirements. Despite our initial concerns, efficiency constraints have been succesfully met.