JLOUIS Ramblings: On Erlang, State and Crashes - http://jlouisramblings.blogspot.com/2010...
"Erlang programs have a concept called the error kernel. The kernel is the part of the program which must be correct for its correct operation. Good Erlang design begins with identifying the error kernel of the system: What part must not fail or it will bring down the whole system? Once you have the kernel identified, you seek to make it minimal. Whenever the kernel is about to do an operation which is dangerous and might crash, you "outsource" that computation to another process, a dumb slave worker. If he crashes and is killed, nothing really bad has happened - since the kernel keeps going." - Tracy
Useful advice for any production code. - Tracy