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<font size="+1"><b>Erlang/OTP #release#</b></font><br>
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<p>
<font size="+1">Welcome to Erlang/OTP, a complete<br>
development environment<br>
for concurrent programming.</font>
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<br>
<br>
<br>
<p><b>
<font size="+1">
Some hints that may get you started faster
</font>
</b></p>

<ul>

<li>
The Erlang language is described in the 
<a href="reference_manual/users_guide.html">Erlang Reference Manual</a>. 
An Erlang tutorial can be found in 
<a href="getting_started/users_guide.html">
Getting Started With Erlang</a>.
<p>
In addition to the documentation here Erlang is described in several recent books like:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596518189">"Erlang Programming"</a> from O'Reilly.
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.pragprog.com/titles/jaerlang">"Programming Erlang"</a> from Pragmatic.
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.manning.com/logan">"Erlang and OTP in Action"</a> from Manning.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
These books are highly recommended as a start for learning Erlang. 
</p>
</li>
<li>Erlang/OTP is divided into a number of OTP <a
href="applications.html">applications</a>. An application normally contains
Erlang <a href="man_index.html">modules</a>. Some OTP applications,
such as the C interface <em>erl_interface</em>, are written in other languages and have no Erlang
modules.

<p>
<li>On a Unix system you can view the manual pages from the command
line using
<pre>
    % erl -man &lt;module&gt;
</pre>
<p>

<li> You can of course use any editor you like to write Erlang
programs, but if you use Emacs there exists editing support such as
indentation, syntax highlighting, electric commands, module name
verification, comment support including paragraph filling, skeletons,
tags support and more. See the <a href="#tools#/index.html">
Tools</a> application for details.  
<p>
There is also an 
<a href="http://erlide.org/index.html">
Erlang plugin (ErlIDE) for Eclipse</a> if you prefer a more graphical 
environment. ErlIDE is under active development with new features in almost every release.
<li>When developing with Erlang/OTP you usually test your programs
from the interactive shell (see <a href="getting_started/users_guide.html">
Getting Started With Erlang</a>) where you can call individual
functions. There is also a number of tools available, such as the graphical <a
href="#debugger#/index.html" >Debugger</a> and the <a href="#observer#/index.html" >Observer tool</a> for inspection of system information, ets and mnesia tables  etc.
<p> Also note that there are some shell features like history list
(control-p and control-n), in line editing (Emacs key bindings) and
module and function name completion (tab) if the module is loaded.
<p>

<li>OpenSource users can ask questions
and share experiences on the <a href="http://www.erlang.org/static/doc/mailinglist.html">
Erlang questions mailing list</a>.  <p>

<li>Before asking a question you can browse the <a
href="http://www.erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/">
mailing list archive</a> and read the <a
href="http://www.erlang.org/faq/faq.html" >Frequently
Asked Questions</a>.  <p>

<li>Additional information and links of interest for Erlang programmers can be found on the Erlang Open Source site 
<a href="http://www.erlang.org/">http://www.erlang.org</a>.
<p>

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