---
title: Home
layout: page
class: frontpage
link:
ghrepo: 'https://github.com/tonyg/syndicate'
docs: 'http://docs.racket-lang.org/syndicate/index.html'
---
**noun**
/ˈsindikit/
1. a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or
entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or
promote a shared interest.
—[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate)
## Overview
Syndicate is an Actor-based language offering
- pub/sub pattern-based message routing, for mapping events to actors
- *dataspaces*, stores for semi-structured data, for managing shared
state
- *state change notifications* for keeping actors informed of changes
in dataspaces
- integrated techniques for registering and discovering services and
for cleaning up after both graceful and unexpected actor failures
- recursive layering of groups of actors, each group with a private
dataspace of its own, for organising larger programs
Together, these features help programmers organise their interactive programs.
## Example
These two actors implement a toy “bank account” actor that listens for
`deposit` messages and maintains an `account` balance record in the
shared dataspace. The first is written using Syndicate implemented for
Racket, and the second using Syndicate for JavaScript.
{% capture racket_example1 %}{% include frontpage_racket_example1.md %}{% endcapture %}
{% capture javascript_example1 %}{% include frontpage_javascript_example1.md %}{% endcapture %}
{% capture racket_example2 %}{% include frontpage_racket_example2.md %}{% endcapture %}
{% capture javascript_example2 %}{% include frontpage_javascript_example2.md %}{% endcapture %}
{{ racket_example1 | markdownify }}
{{ javascript_example1 | markdownify }}
The next two implement a client for the “bank account”. Each time the
balance in the shared dataspace changes, they print a message to the
console.
{{ racket_example2 | markdownify }}
{{ javascript_example2 | markdownify }}
The full code for the Racket example is
[bank-account.rkt](https://github.com/tonyg/syndicate/blob/master/racket/syndicate/examples/actor/bank-account.rkt),
and for the JavaScript example,
[demo-bankaccount.js](https://github.com/tonyg/syndicate/blob/master/js/compiler/demo-bankaccount.js).
## Live Syndicate/js demos
[This page](examples/) links to in-browser runnable demos (and source
code) of Syndicate/js programs.
## Code
Syndicate is implemented both for [Racket](http://racket-lang.org/)
and for [JavaScript](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECMAScript).
The [Syndicate github repository]({{ page.link.ghrepo }}) contains
implementations along with some larger example programs.
## Documentation
The system is still somewhat in flux, and documentation is still being
written. A draft of the documentation for the Racket implementation of
Syndicate is available [here]({{ page.link.docs }}).
## Papers
Tony Garnock-Jones, [“From Events To Reactions: A Progress Report”]({{
site.baseurl
}}/papers/from-events-to-reactions-a-progress-report-20160301-1747.pdf),
In: Proc. PLACES 2016 (workshop), April 2016, Eindhoven, Netherlands. ([PDF]({{ site.baseurl }}/papers/from-events-to-reactions-a-progress-report-20160301-1747.pdf); [Slides]({{ site.baseurl }}/papers/places-2016-slides.pdf))
Tony Garnock-Jones and Matthias Felleisen,
[“Coordinated Concurrent Programming in Syndicate”]({{ site.baseurl
}}/papers/coordinated-concurrent-programming-in-syndicate-20160111-1409.pdf),
In: Proc. ESOP 2016, April 2016, Eindhoven, Netherlands. ([PDF]({{ site.baseurl }}/papers/coordinated-concurrent-programming-in-syndicate-20160111-1409.pdf); [Slides]({{ site.baseurl }}/papers/esop-2016-slides.pdf))
Tony Garnock-Jones, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, and Matthias Felleisen,
[“The Network as a Language Construct”]({{ site.baseurl
}}/papers/network-as-language-construct-20140117-1204.pdf),
In: Proc. ESOP 2014, April 2016, Eindhoven, Netherlands. ([PDF]({{ site.baseurl }}/papers/network-as-language-construct-20140117-1204.pdf); [Slides]({{ site.baseurl }}/papers/esop-2014-slides.pdf))
## Contact
Please feel free to email me at tonyg@ccs.neu.edu.