2021-08-13 19:51:11 +00:00
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# What is an Actor?
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2021-09-04 15:48:22 +00:00
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A [Syndicated Actor][Actor] ([Garnock-Jones 2017](#GarnockJones2017))
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is a collection of stateful [Entities][Entity], organised in a tree of
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[Facets][Facet], with each facet representing a
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2021-08-27 13:31:18 +00:00
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[(sub)conversation](https://syndicate-lang.org/about/#conversational-concurrency-1)
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that the Actor is engaged in. Each entity belongs to exactly one
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facet; each facet has exactly one parent and zero or more children;
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each actor has exactly one associated root facet. When a facet is its
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actor's root facet, its parent is the actor itself; otherwise, its
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parent is always another facet.
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In the taxonomy of De Koster *et al.* ([2016](#DeKoster2016)), the
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Syndicated Actor model is a *Communicating Event-Loop* actor model,
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similar to that offered by the E programming language
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([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(programming_language));
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[erights.org](http://erights.org/)).
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2021-08-27 13:31:18 +00:00
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- [Actor], [ActorRef], [Facet], [FacetRef], [ActorState], [Mailbox],
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[Activation]
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**References.**
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- De Koster, Joeri, Tom Van Cutsem, and Wolfgang De Meuter. <a
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name="DeKoster2016"
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href="http://soft.vub.ac.be/Publications/2016/vub-soft-tr-16-11.pdf">“43
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Years of Actors: A Taxonomy of Actor Models and Their Key
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Properties.”</a> In Proc. AGERE, 31–40. Amsterdam, The
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Netherlands, 2016. [DOI](https://doi.org/10.1145/3001886.3001890).
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[PDF](http://soft.vub.ac.be/Publications/2016/vub-soft-tr-16-11.pdf).
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2021-09-04 15:48:22 +00:00
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- Garnock-Jones, Tony. <a name="GarnockJones2017"
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href="https://syndicate-lang.org/tonyg-dissertation/html/">“Conversational
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Concurrency.”</a> PhD, Northeastern University, 2017.
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[Permalink](http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20261862).
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[PDF@Northeastern](https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:cj82qs441/fulltext.pdf).
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[PDF@syndicate-lang.org](https://syndicate-lang.org/papers/conversational-concurrency-201712310922.pdf).
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[HTML](https://syndicate-lang.org/tonyg-dissertation/html/).
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