Erlang in Practice - PragProg Screencasts

I recently watched the first in the series of the Pragmatic Programmers Erlang in Practice Screencasts (by Kevin Smith - no, not that Kevin Smith). As I’ve not seen them discussed that much else where I thought I’d jot down my thoughts.

First up a disclaimer/warning - I’m not an Erlang person and despite the title of ‘Episode 1’ this series of screencasts is not aimed at people with no experience in the language. If you want to learn Erlang then I’d suggest you read Programming Erlang instead. Once you’ve been through the book then you should consider coming back to this series.

Now, to look at the screencasts from a different angle - production quality and value for money. Despite not knowing enough Erlang to understand all the code presented, I found the quality of the screencast to be perfect for watching on a laptop. The video was clear, the presenters voice didn’t make me want to kill him (although this is a highly personal thing) and at five dollars the price was right for an hours worth of content.

So would I buy another one? Yes, but not this series. Until I get a chance to work my way through the Erlang book this series is off limits to me, The Ruby Object Model and Metaprogramming on the other other hand is mighty tempting for under five UK pounds…