Tag: actor model

Scala Job Interview – Reactive Programming

Here we are with the fourth installment in this Scala Job Interview series. The first was on general questions, the second on Scala language, and the third on functional programming.

Explain the actor model

In this case, the Actor Model has nothing to do with the Star System 🙂 I’m not sure where the term actor in “actor model” comes from. but, quite for sure, it has nothing to do with Hollywood, but more with the idea of something that “acts”, i.e. makes actions.

In fact, the Actor in the Actor Model is a processing entity that receives and reacts to messages. More precisely an Actor can only perform computation on the receipt of a message, when message processing is done, the actor just idly waits for the next incoming message.

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Out Fathers’ Faults – Actors and Concurrency

When I started this job and faced the joyful world of Scala and Akka I remember I was told that thanks to the Actor model you don’t have to worry about concurrency, since every issue was handled by the acting magic.

Some months later we discovered, to our dismay that this wasn’t true. Or better, it was true most of the time if you behave properly, but there are notable exceptions.

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