Notes

Actor Principle - Interview with Get Smarter Assistant

Tucano: Problem: Misunderstanding: We need to talk:

Actor Principle - Entity Overview

The Actor Model is a conceptual model used mainly for handling concurrency in computing systems. Here are its main entities:
Actors: The fundamental unit of computation. Actors can:
Create more actors.Send messages to other actors.Designate behavior to handle the next message received.Messages: The communication method between actors. Actors interact with each other exclusively through message passing. This decouples execution and avoids shared memory.
Addresses: Each actor has a unique address, used by other actors to send them messages.
These entities work together to enable the Actor Model to manage concurrency efficiently and reliably.

Actor Principle - Self Awareness

do those actors only process the messages to answer the message or do they have goals on their own like a self conscience. Do the messages only come from others?
Actors in the Actor Model are designed to handle messages sent to them, but they don't possess self-awareness or independent goals like a self-conscience would. Here's how they operate:
Message Handling: Actors process messages that they receive. They react based on predefined behaviors or instructions embedded within their programming.
Autonomous Behavior: While actors don't have independent consciousness, they can initiate actions on their own based on the outcomes of the received messages. They can also spawn new actors to carry out specific tasks or further the computation process.
Message Origin: Messages typically originate from other actors. However, once an actor is created, it may set its behavior to trigger actions under certain conditions, making it appear autonomous.
Actors are reactive, and their design reflects principles of encapsulation and responsibility, but not self-awareness.

Actor Principle - Multiple Actors & Blueprints

Do those Actors spawning new Actors take care of those actors? Are those new Actors immediately independent? Does the Actor, who spawned them use itselfs as a blueprint? are several actors ever spawning actors in conjunction?
Actors can create new actors, and here's how that process generally works:
Creation and Independence: New actors created by an existing actor are immediately independent. They operate autonomously, handling their own messages. While the creator actor initiates their creation, it doesn't inherently manage or "take care of" these new actors unless it's part of the specific design to communicate and coordinate with them.
Blueprint for Creation: The creating actor can define initial behaviors or pass initial data/configurations during the creation of new actors, acting as a "blueprint." This doesn’t mean they are direct copies; it's more about setting up initial instructions or state.
Concurrent Spawning: Multiple actors can concurrently create other actors, possibly leading to a complex hierarchy of actors. The system’s design would dictate how, or if, these actors coordinate or work together.
The Actor Model encourages designing systems where actors are loosely coupled, focusing on message passing for coordination rather than deep hierarchies of control.

Actor Principle - Exclusion & Communication Control

So Actors spawned other Actors with a Blueprint develop freely, but could the instructions bind them to send messages only to a certain group, the Creators of the Actors for example? Could it happen, that Actors are excluded or Communication between groups is stopped or corrupted?
Yes, in the Actor Model, while new actors can develop freely based on their initial blueprint or instructions, they can also be programmatically restricted to communicate only with specific actors or groups. Here's how it can work:
Restricted Communication: When creating new actors, you can program them with specific addresses to send messages to. This binding can limit their communication to a predefined group, like their creators or a designated set of actors.
Exclusion and Communication Control: It's possible to control communication and exclude certain actors if needed. This can be part of the actor's behavior logic or enforced through system-level rules or policies.
Communication Issues: While the Actor Model is designed to manage concurrent communication robustly, misconfigurations, logical errors, or network issues in distributed systems can lead to communication failures, message loss, or corruption. Good design practices and error handling are critical to mitigate these risks.

Actor Principle - Distributed Systems & Users

So is it a good idea to use the Actor Model for Distributed Systems where Servers or Entities are treated as Actors or is it a better Idea to use the Actor Model for the Users of a System or Service being distributed via a Server or Entity?
The Actor Model can be applied to both situations, but the decision depends on the system's requirements and design goals:
Actors as Servers/Entities:
Advantages: Using actors to model servers or entities can lead to highly scalable and resilient systems, as each actor encapsulates state and behavior. This is beneficial in managing stateful services or microservices.Use Cases: Ideal for distributed systems where workload distribution, fault-tolerance, and isolation are priorities.Actors as Users:
Advantages: Modeling users as actors can simplify managing user state and interactions, enabling personalized experiences and concurrent user handling.Use Cases: Useful when handling numerous concurrent interactions, like chat applications or multiplayer games.Choosing the Right Model:
It often depends on what entities you want to coordinate most and where independence and resilience are most needed.The model excels in scenarios where concurrency, fault-tolerance, and distributed architecture are important. However, it's crucial to architect the system considering communication overheads and actor interaction patterns.Would you like more detailed examples, or perhaps advice on implementing these models?

Google Sites

Report abuse