Understanding the High-Level Overview of OTP in Erlang

Erlang/OTP presents a distinctive approach to application architecture, emphasizing process isolation, live updates, and observability within a virtual machine environment. The Erlang virtual machine, known as BEAM, serves as the foundation, providing a sophisticated runtime system (ERTS) that facilitates the execution of Erlang modules. OTP, standing for Open Telecom Platform, structures system components called OTP Applications into two main categories: Library Applications, which are stateless, and Runnable Applications, which maintain stateful supervision trees. These components ensure a robust and versatile Erlang ecosystem. When Erlang is booted, the 'kernel' application oversees system lifecycle management, akin to an operating system's 'init' or 'systemd' service. A standard Erlang release packages these OTP applications, standard libraries, and the virtual machine, forming the basis upon which custom applications, like a hypothetical 'proxy' app, can be added to create a bespoke release. Tooling in the Erlang community, such as Rebar3, revolves around the concept of OTP applications, establishing an expectation for developers to follow the OTP framework from the outset.