Question 1

How does go-actor compare to using plain goroutines and channels in Go?

Accepted Answer

go-actor provides a structured actor model pattern on top of goroutines and channels, reducing boilerplate and enforcing mutex-free designs, but adds a layer of abstraction that might not be needed for simpler cases. It's best for complex systems where unified concurrency patterns are beneficial.

Question 2

How to handle errors and crashes in go-actor actors?

Accepted Answer

Error handling is manual; developers must implement custom logic within workers to manage failures, as the library doesn't include supervision trees. The README suggests reviewing best practices and common hurdles for guidance on managing actor lifecycle and errors.

Question 3

Is go-actor good for building microservices?

Accepted Answer

It can be used for microservices components requiring high concurrency, but it lacks built-in distributed features, so you'll need to handle inter-service communication separately. Its efficiency makes it suitable for internal actor-based processing within services.

Question 4

What add-ons are available for go-actor and how do I use them?

Accepted Answer

Add-ons like go-super-actor for testing and go-actor-commence for execution commencement are separate projects; you need to integrate them manually as dependencies. Check the GitHub repositories linked in the README for installation and usage details.

Question 5

How to test actors built with go-actor?

Accepted Answer

Use the go-super-actor add-on for unified testing of actors and workers, as mentioned in the README. Alternatively, you can mock mailboxes and workers in unit tests, but the add-on simplifies this process.

Question 6

Does go-actor support message ordering guarantees across multiple actors?

Accepted Answer

Mailboxes use Go channels, which preserve order for a single receiver, but with multiple consumers, ordering isn't guaranteed by default. You may need to implement custom logic if strict ordering is required across actors.

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