OTP behaviours and how to behave around them

One of the first things every newcomer faces when they meet OTP are behaviours. The general explanation for them is usually along the lines of "they're like interfaces for OOP". While that's somewhat accurate, it's also misleading and introduces a lot of confusion on how and when to use the existing behaviours and when it's reasonable to define your own ones. In this talk, Brujo will explain what behaviours are, how they should be used and how to create and expose new ones if you ever need to.

OBJECTIVES

To help newcomers get familiar with OTP behaviours and to help experienced devs rediscover them.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Developers willing to understand what they really do when they implement a generic server or a supervisor. Also folks considering the creation of their own behaviours with the desire to do it right. If you don't know what a behaviour is at all, you're welcome here too.