Products · Product
Erlang
Raised as a usability problem by 66 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2008–2025), in 56 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
- 1Erlang syntax is hard to read and learnUnreviewed
Every issue, all time, most people first
Erlang syntax is hard to read and learnUnreviewed
20082026- Erlang's syntax is hard to read and learn, feels weird to developers2024-03-24
- Erlang docs are structured and navigated differently from Elixir's, so newcomers get confused2022-05-09
- Erlang docs are hard to read, so the user can't learn custom types2021-06-10
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Exhausting, slow to find out what a SQL query actually returns2025-07-24
- Raw typespecs and scrolling make function docs much harder for beginners to read2025-03-28
- Holding onto large binaries needs very specific code at green thread boundaries, which is easy to get wrong2024-05-22
- Erlang's syntax is hard to read and learn, feels weird to developers2024-03-24
- Parse transforms have an atrocious user experience for the developer2023-09-21
- Basic questions send users to a separate Erlang documentation set, switching context2023-08-14
- Debugger is an ugly GUI that pops out of the window, unlike a command line tool2022-07-19
- Can't figure out how to load source code; debugger not obvious for stepping through Elixir code2022-07-19
- Erlang docs are structured and navigated differently from Elixir's, so newcomers get confused2022-05-09
- Gets stuck for hours on database and infrastructure setup rather than the programming itself2022-01-16
- Erlang docs are hard to read, so the user can't learn custom types2021-06-10
- Outdated frameworks with no working setup instructions or beginner documentation, so commenter couldn't get them running2021-01-14
- Error messages are vexing and take a while to understand, even in toy examples2020-11-06
- Reassigning an existing variable gives an opaque 'no match of right hand side value' error to newcomers2020-10-06
- Hard to tell which TLS options were supported, so needed trial and error2020-05-23
- Confusing syntax choices like capitalised variables, poor string handling, and semicolon placement make it user hostile2020-04-07
- Hard to follow code; dependencies shuffled across modules make the TFTP PXE booting case confusing2020-04-07
- Expressions need a trailing whitespace or line break to be evaluated, otherwise nothing prints2020-04-06
- Erlang syntax and docs are foreign and intimidating for beginners2020-01-28
- Table of contents overlaps content in Firefox, making links impossible to click2019-10-28
- Build process is needlessly complicated for developers to get through2019-09-30
- Confusing mix of iodata, lists, binaries and bitstrings for beginners2019-08-08
- Getting optimal performance from binary pattern matching is unintuitive2019-05-18
- Hard to tell what shape tuple parameters take without specs2018-10-20
- Found Erlang's syntax difficult to get accustomed to coming from Python2018-07-25
- Shell history was missing, forcing messy hacks to get around it2017-06-21
- OTP patterns remain opaque even after reading many manuals and books2017-06-21
- Sidebar covers half the text on mobile, can't zoom properly2017-06-21
- Hard to set up real projects; library install instructions don't match downloads, and Emacs EDTS can't find hrl files2017-06-21
- Ctrl-C prompt shows confusing abort and kill options aimed at developers, not users2017-01-24
- Hard to tell whether an atom is a module or symbol; struct update syntax is dense and implicit2016-12-20
- People get confused by Erlang's use of semicolons and periods2016-10-19
- Cannot find gen_statem documentation, only scattered example references2016-06-22
- Can't figure out where to put code or how to run the app2015-10-04
- List comprehension syntax with pattern matching is confusing to read2015-08-08
- Erlang tooling feels unfriendly and testing code is difficult2014-11-26
- Nested record field updates need verbose syntax, making changes to nested fields annoying2014-10-17
- Empty doc pages, confusing folder icons, and functions and arguments hard to tell apart2014-06-25
- Reader can't work out how to page through the article on a tablet2014-06-22
- Took ten minutes of clicking and swiping to discover cursor keys navigate2014-06-22
- Confusing division of labor between build tools, releases and boot scripts2014-05-19
- Inconsistent argument orders make you forget them and check the docs2014-04-28
- Hard to find tutorials or docs showing how to manage state and data structures2014-02-21
- Documentation presentation is lacking and mistakes are hard to quickly correct2014-02-21
- Language feels weird and uncomfortable to newcomers, so they quickly give up learning it2014-02-21
- Unfamiliar syntax, like dot-terminated lines and semicolons, makes it hard to start playing with the language2014-02-21
- Error messages are obtuse and config file loading is impossible to trace from code2014-02-21
- Comma placement rules make tweaking and debugging code painful for a newcomer2014-02-21
- Argument order and return value formats vary, so programmers must keep looking up API docs2014-02-21
- Code block text has too little contrast to read easily2014-02-02