Here we give a survey of consequences from the theory of the Beltrami equation in the complex plane $\mathbb C$ to generalized Cauchy-Riemann equation in the real plane $\mathbb R^2$ and clarify the relationships of the latter to the $A-$harmonic equation ${\rm div} A(z)\,{\rm grad}\, u(z) = 0$, $z=x+iy$, with matrix valued coefficients $A$ that is one of the main equations of the potential theory, namely, of the hydro\-mechanics (fluid mechanics) in anisotropic and inhomogeneous media. The survey includes various types of results as theorems on existence, representation and regularity of its solutions, in particular, for the main boundary value problems of Hilbert, Dirichlet, Neumann, Poincare and Riemann.