Designing for Crash-First

In Erlang, we don't just handle errors; we embrace them! This is the "crash-first" principle.

Instead of trying to prevent every possible error with complex checks, Erlang systems are designed to let processes crash when something unexpected happens.

The system then relies on another component, the supervisor, to detect the crash and restart the failed process, ensuring continuous operation.

This approach leads to more robust, self-healing applications.

Many programming paradigms emphasize "defensive programming":

• Extensive input validation.
• Complex error codes and handling logic.
• Trying to recover *within* the failing function.

Crash-first flips this: If a process encounters an unrecoverable error, it should just crash. Let a higher-level entity (the supervisor) deal with the recovery.