About The BEAM Book
The BEAM Book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the Erlang Virtual Machine (BEAM) that powers Erlang, Elixir, and other BEAM languages. Written by Happi Hacking's own experts, this book provides deep insights into the runtime system that makes fault-tolerant, concurrent systems possible.
What You'll Learn
- BEAM Architecture: Deep dive into the virtual machine's design and implementation
- Process Management: How BEAM handles millions of lightweight processes
- Memory Management: Garbage collection and memory optimization strategies
- Fault Tolerance: The supervisor tree and "let it crash" philosophy
- Performance Tuning: Profiling and optimizing BEAM applications
- Advanced Topics: Hot code loading, distribution, and clustering
Why This Book Matters
The BEAM virtual machine is the secret sauce behind some of the world's most reliable systems. Companies like WhatsApp, Discord, and Klarna rely on BEAM's unique capabilities to handle massive scale with incredible reliability.
Community Feedback
"´I kept going because I wanted to understand the BEAM properly.´ There's value in following the real logic, not just the surface explanations."
—elric, Hacker News
"A must-read for any #erlang or #elixirlang developer."
—@lucianparvu
"Recent discussion reminded me about this great book on lower-level working of ERTS/BEAM by @erik_stenman. Highly recommended; I'll reread it myself :-)"
—@sasajuric
"The information in this book has proven invaluable to better understand process scheduling, garbage collection and memory allocators and greatly improve the performance of RabbitMQ, both through more efficient algorithms and better VM configuration."
—Loïc Hoguin, author of Cowboy (and other Erlang tools)
"Really enjoying the BEAM Book..."
—Mike Hostetler
"Referencing @erik_stenman's BEAM expertise"
—Code BEAM SF
"Probably the Beam Book is one of the best resources that every elixir develop should read to understand the BEAM vm."
—Carlo Gilmar
"I believe there are at least two resources that are a must for Elixir developers: the first one is Joe Armstrong's thesis, and the second one is the BEAM book."
—Carlo Gilmar
"Have read the Beam Book - it helps to understand how BEAM VM works, and how to use it better."
—Roman Kotov
Book Details
- Pages: 400+
- Publisher: HappiHacking AB
- ISBN: 978-1718503915
- Format: Paperback, eBook, PDF
- Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Get Your Copy
Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/9153142535
What People Are Saying
´I kept going because I wanted to understand the BEAM properly.´ There's value in following the real logic, not just the surface explanations.
— elric, Hacker News
A must-read for any #erlang or #elixirlang developer.
— @lucianparvu
Recent discussion reminded me about this great book on lower-level working of ERTS/BEAM by @erik_stenman. Highly recommended; I'll reread it myself :-)
— @sasajuric
The information in this book has proven invaluable to better understand process scheduling, garbage collection and memory allocators and greatly improve the performance of RabbitMQ, both through more efficient algorithms and better VM configuration.
— Loïc Hoguin, author of Cowboy (and other Erlang tools)
Really enjoying the BEAM Book...
— Mike Hostetler
Referencing @erik_stenman's BEAM expertise
— Code BEAM SF
Probably the Beam Book is one of the best resources that every elixir develop should read to understand the BEAM vm.
— Carlo Gilmar
I believe there are at least two resources that are a must for Elixir developers: the first one is Joe Armstrong's thesis, and the second one is the BEAM book.
— Carlo Gilmar
Have read the Beam Book - it helps to understand how BEAM VM works, and how to use it better.
— Roman Kotov
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