Question

I have a question about erlang shell and erlang vm.

We have to write simple client-server application in Erlang, but only for local enviroment, so no sockets or anything.

I wanted to write something resembling a communicator server, people could register and send messages to other people. The thing is that if I open up erl and start my server/register it I can control only one process from the erlang shell, so there is no fun in that because I can’t talk to anybody.

Is it possbile to open 2 erlang shells that are connected to the same instance of vm or compile the client program, start the server from erlang shell and then run the compiled clients in the same vm?

Answer 1

• It is possible to open two shells connected to one VM (regular and
  rem shell).
• You can control many processes from one shell, just spawn
  them.
• What you probably really want is many erl VMs talking to each
  other, even on one host. Just run them in distributed mode (e.g. with
  -sname) and from now on you can communicate with anyone with the same cookie.

One of places to look at while learning erlang: http://learnyousomeerlang.com/distribunomicon#alone-in-the-dark