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I've seen module_name:new used in Erlang code, but there is no reference to a "new" function in the module_name module. What does "new" do?
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spawn() creates a new process and returns the pid. The new process starts executing in Module:Name(Arg1,...,ArgN) where the arguments are the elements of the (possible empty) Args argument list. There exist a number of different spawn BIFs: spawn/1,2,3,4.
A process can terminate itself by calling one of the BIFs exit(Reason), erlang:error(Reason), erlang:error(Reason, Args), erlang:fault(Reason) or erlang:fault(Reason, Args). The process then terminates with reason Reason for exit/1 or {Reason,Stack} for the others.
Erlang processes are lightweight, operate in (memory) isolation from other processes, and are scheduled by Erlang's Virtual Machine (VM). The creation time of process is very low, the memory footprint of a just spawned process is very small, and a single Erlang VM can have millions of processes running.
Modules are a bunch of functions regrouped in a single file, under a single name. Additionally, all functions in Erlang must be defined in modules. Most of the basic functionality like arithmetic, logic and Boolean operators are already available because the default modules are loaded when a program is run.
It is for "parametrized module": see here and there for more details.
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