Erlang Installer Beta: A Better Way To Use Erlang On OS X | Hacker News Reader

Erlang Installer Beta: A Better Way To Use Erlang On OS X

erlang-solutions.com

68 points_nato_18 comments

I think I'll stick with `brew upgrade` or, more accurately,

    brew update
    brew upgrade  
    npm -g upgrade

    for f in ~/projects/*; do
      cd $f 
      npm update --save 
      npm update --save-dev 
      mix deps.update --all 
      elm-packages update  
      bundle update 
      npm test 
      mix test 
      rake test
    done

    # I fixed the script for you:
    [...]
    for f in $(ls -1d ~/projects/**/); do
      cd -- "$f"
      [...]
    done

  [...]
  pushd .
  for [...]
  popd

I'm always a fan of ending up back where I started.

Piling on the nitpick train :) If an error occurs along the way popd won't run, so a subshell might be a better way to accomplish the same thing:

    (
      for ...; do
        cd ...
      done
    )
    # script exits, you're back where you started

If you'd prefer to see it in isolation: pwd; ( cd /tmp; pwd ); pwd

A couple of months ago I stoped using rvm, kerl, exenv, nvm and started using asdf - "Extendable version manager with support for Ruby, Node.js, Elixir, Erlang & more".

I've been pretty satisfied with it, and haven't had a single problem with it yet - it just works (™).

I recommend trying it out, relevant links:

https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf

https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-erlang

That's funny. I was just talking to somebody about all the different version managers we wind up dealing with. I'll have to look at it more later.

Interesting, I'll try it out.

On Linux I used the 'kerl' script to easily switch between installations: https://github.com/kerl/kerl

Seems like it works on OS X too: http://stratus3d.com/blog/2014/10/24/install-erlang-16-on-ma...

I use Kerl on OSX and have had zero issues with it switching between different Erlang versions. I haven't evaluated other options, but can confirm Kerl works on a mac.

Yep, I rely heavily on kerl on macOS (will take a while to get used to that name). Great tool.

A similar tool, written by a former co-worker of mine: https://github.com/metadave/erln8

I like the idea however another menu bar item seems to be the wrong way to go about doing this. Why is brew a bad idea?

Homebrew sometimes takes a while to get new erlang releases available. I seem to recall a release about a year ago that took over a month to become available. Something about other apps in homebrew that use erlang having to update before the homebrew erlang could be released, or something like that, I don't recall the details.

At any rate I've been using asdf https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf to manage my erlang and elixir installs on a per project basis for a while now and it has been working well for me.

If I recall correctly, Erlang 19 was held up for a while in homebrww because the couchdb formula needed to be updated also.

I had the same question and concern. I see its available via brew.

I'm a big fan of this. An example of a similar tool that I love is Postgres.app [0]. Compare using Postgres.app with having to install and configure MySQL... It makes a world of difference when you're first learning how to use these tools.

The killer feature of these installer options is that they make the tools much for approachable for everyone!

Configuring and setting up a bunch of tools that you don't understand makes it very hard to get your feet wet. I think once you're familiarized with the tools it's important to learn how things work. But if you're just getting started, there's no reason for you to waste your time configuring anything. The default config should be beginner friendly and provide sensible defaults.

[0] http://postgresapp.com/

In order to use erl/erlc from the command line, would I have to launch an "Erlang Terminal" from the menu bar or is there a convenient way to get the current default Erlang's bin folder on my path?

Edit: I mostly work with Elixir and have Erlang installed via Homebrew right now.

I prefer something akin to the `rustup` CLI to a native app personally.

check kerl: https://github.com/kerl/kerl

It's good to see language communities/committees taking steps to improve UX.

That said, since we're all using this to announce our idiosyncratic package managers, I use Nix.

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