What is the actor model in concurrency?

What is the actor model in concurrency?

The actor model is a conceptual model used in computer science to deal with concurrent computation. It treats "actors" as the fundamental units of computation, which can send messages to each other, create new actors, and determine how to respond to messages.

How does it differ from traditional concurrency models?

Unlike traditional models that often use shared memory and locks, the actor model avoids shared state. Each actor has its own state and communicates through message passing, which helps to prevent issues like race conditions.

Can you give me an example of how the actor model is used?

Sure! In a chat application, each user can be represented as an actor. When one user sends a message, it is sent to the recipient's actor, which processes it independently, allowing for concurrent interactions without conflicts.

What are some programming languages that support the actor model?

Languages like Erlang, Akka (for Scala and Java), and Elixir are designed with the actor model in mind, providing built-in support for creating and managing actors.