Well, we’ve been on a pretty wild ride. Beginning with an explanation of the Actor model and some of its more salient points, we then introduced two categories of Actor model topologies. The first category was derived from familiar patterns found elsewhere in computing, demonstrated in terms of actors, in an attempt to help you become comfortable actors. The second category constituted novel topologies of our own design, based in large part on research conducted in our professional capacities. Each topology came with at least one example demonstration implemented in different languages, using different frameworks.

We feel strongly that, although the Actor model is no silver bullet, that it can be a valuable tool when reasoning about problems, and certainly a viable alternative to threads.