Erlang Shen or Erlang is a Chinese deity who supposedly regulates floods, Erlang a computer language ideal for large volume applications. Is this just some kind of weird coincidence?
Asked
Active
Viewed 287 times
2 Answers
5
Wikipedia says it's either a reference to Agner Krarup Erlang, or an abbreviation for Ericsson Language. Given that it was developed by a company based in Sweden, it's unlikely (though not impossible) that it's secretly a reference to a Chinese god.
Matthew Flaschen
- 278,309
- 50
- 514
- 539
-
3Just love this site. Even a silly question like this gets answered in seconds! – Chris Huang-Leaver Jun 15 '10 at 02:32
-
1Historical Note: my profile says 'one day I will be able to edit other peoples posts'. ( I might change my profile one day!) – Chris Huang-Leaver Jun 25 '10 at 10:20
3
The wiki article you linked to says
The name "Erlang", attributed to Bjarne Däcker, has been understood either as a reference to Danish mathematician and engineer Agner Krarup Erlang, or alternatively, as an abbreviation of "Ericsson Language".[1][3]
Paul Tomblin
- 179,021
- 58
- 319
- 408
-
1The mathematician Agner Krarup Erlang did important work on telephone network analysis and how to calculate network loads. – rvirding Jun 15 '10 at 22:10