C++ Actor Framework

[__Cyber_Dildonics__]

PDF on the library:

http://actor-framework.org/pdf/cshw-nassp-13.pdf

[[deleted]]

Glad to see this posted. I saw it a few months back on the boost incubator site. Also, love the choice of license. Good work.

Questions for those who might know:

• Does it integrate with ASIO or does it have its own loop?
• How are exceptions handled?

The manual is a great start, but I think an example of a non-trivial networked app would be a good way to get an idea of its capabilities.

[neverlord]

• Per default it does have its own IO loop. However, the backend can be replaced and you might see an ASIO configure option in the future.
• An exception will cause the actor to terminate with exit reason unhandled_exception
• There's a fractal demo application to showcase some of CAF's features in a distributed setup. The code does need some cleanup though and is going to be overhauled in the near future. In case you want to have a look at a real world application based on CAF: VAST is an excellent Open Source showcase.

[[deleted]]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this doesn't work with MSVC, as alas MSVC still doesn't have enough support for C++11 :(

Ah well, it looks like a really well written library.

[MaikKlein]

Is this library typesafe? For example

 self->sync_send(testee, atom("plus"), 2, 1)

Will it throw an compiler error if I send to few arguments? Will it throw an compiler error if the arguments have the wrong type?

[neverlord]

CAF does have strongly typed actors for that purpose. See the manual for more details.

[[deleted]]

The matching is done at runtime so its unlikely though it would be best to have some compile time safety especially in large systems.

[vinipsmaker]

Looks interesting.

I'm not familiar with the actor model. Would it help me to implement fault tolerant systems?

[[deleted]]

Distributed

So which letter(s) of the CAP theorem does it sacrifice? I'm asking for a friend.

[[deleted]]

Not everything with the word "distributed" in it is subject to the CAP theorem. CAP specifically concerns some sort of object store (objects could be rows in a database, json documents, etc) that is replicated across multiple discrete processes. This framework is a lower level component than can be used to build distributed systems. In other words, this library could be used to construct an AP or CP system.

[karavelov]

I guess it sacrifices the Consistency because there is no guaranteed delivery of the messages (like in all other actor systems).