Integrating Erlang with C++

Question

What interfaces exist to tie Erlang with C++?

Answer 1

To Zed's excellent answer, I would add open_port(). It lets you start an external program and communicate with it from Erlang using its standard in and out. You can use it like Unix pipes by giving the {line, L} option, or there's also the length-prefixed {packet, N} option which I find to be safer and more efficient.

The advantage of this over NIFs and port drivers is that your Erlang code is totally insulated from the C code. The C program can smash its own stack, double-free blocks of memory, enter an infinite loop, whatever. None of this stops your Erlang code. At worst, you close the Erlang port and re-open it if things go pear-shaped.