2009/9/30 Josh Suereth <joshua.suer...@gmail.com>: > As much as I agree with your decision, it just makes me sad. I know lots > of people that learned scala for "actors are the way of the future".... I > think we need to push harder. Hopefully all major projects migrating off > actors will give EPFL a wake up call?
This is the reason I created Akka, to have a standard platform for Actors with all the things one need to write production applications. Akka already have 4 committers and honestly, looking at the pace EPFL has had with bugfixing, features etc I think they will have a very hard time keep up with what the market needs. I have unfortunately given up up the Scala Actors library. I need the things Akka implements now and don't have time to wait indefinitely. > > - Josh > > On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 1:41 PM, David Pollak > <feeder.of.the.be...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 2:35 AM, Stuart Roebuck <stuart.roeb...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >>> >>> Apologies if I've missed something obvious but my web search hasn't >>> turned anything up... >>> >>> What are the Scala Actors instability issues? I'm in the process of >>> doing some major Scala development work and this comment raises >>> concerns that I'd like to understand. >> >> The issues (with the Scala Actors in general and Lift's use of them) are: >> >> Scala Actors use a custom version of Doug Leah's Fork/Join library. This >> was necessary for JDK 1.4 support. With JDK 1.5, the java.util.concurrent >> stuff should have been used. I was led to understand that this change was >> made in Scala 2.7.5, but it was not and even the Scala 2.8 stuff still >> contains fork-join. The FJ library has a memory retention issue where it >> trades memory for non-locking performance and, with many threads in a >> thread-pool, this leads to out of memory issues. >> The Scala Actor code is very brittle. >> See http://erikengbrecht.blogspot.com/2009/01/refactoring-scala-actors.html >> The code has not been materially refactored, which means that even in 2.8, >> there will be significant potential problems with the Actors. Those >> potential problems have manifest themselves as real problems in 2.7.x. I >> have spent in aggregate nearly 3 weeks of my time since November 2008 >> working around the defects in the Actor library. It's easier to have our >> own Actors (the current Actor library is about 2 days of work on my part and >> the refactoring of Lift to work with the existing Actor library is another 2 >> days of work.) >> EPFL has been generally slow to respond to bug reports. I am very >> frustrated and quite frankly tired of having to cajole EPFL into responding >> to defects in one of the premier Scala libraries. >> >> I would strongly suggest that you look at Akka. It's got a better view >> and implementation of Actors than does the standard Scala distribution. Akka >> includes support for distributed actors, etc. >> Hope this helps. >> >>> >>> Best, >>> >>> Stuart >>> >>> On Sep 29, 3:30 am, David Pollak <feeder.of.the.be...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> > Folks, >>> > >>> > Given the continued instability of Scala Actors, I've decided to remove >>> > them >>> > from Lift. >>> > >>> > Specifically, I'm migrating CometActors to sit on top of Lift's Actors. >>> > But, you'll also be able to use Akka Actors to power Lift's >>> > CometActors. >>> > Specifically, I'm working with Jonas to make sure that we share a >>> > common >>> > interface to Actors. >>> > >>> > I've gotten Lift nearly completely migrated over to Lift's Actors on >>> > the >>> > dpp_wip_actorize branch. >>> > Seehttp://github.com/dpp/liftweb/tree/dpp_wip_actorize >>> > >>> > There will be some breaking changes to your applications. >>> > Specifically: >>> > >>> > - Box will be moved to a new package, net.liftweb.base (this is >>> > where the >>> > interface for Actors will live as well) >>> > - If you make any assumptions about your CometActors being Scala >>> > Actors >>> > (e.g., using linking), you will have to rewrite this code >>> > - Some methods in Lift that currently take Scala Actors as >>> > parameters >>> > will take Lift Actors (e.g., ActorPing) >>> > >>> > There will be a parallel Maven repository with the new Lift Actor stuff >>> > in >>> > it so you will be able to build you apps against the new code before >>> > the >>> > official switch-over. >>> > >>> > Milestone 6 (which should be out next week) will be based on the >>> > existing >>> > Actor model. After we get feedback from the community about the new >>> > Actor >>> > stuff, we will switch -SNAPSHOT over to the new Actor stuff. >>> > >>> > Questions, thoughts, or comments? >>> > >>> > Thanks, >>> > >>> > David >>> > >>> > -- >>> > Lift, the simply functional web frameworkhttp://liftweb.net >>> > Beginning Scalahttp://www.apress.com/book/view/1430219890 >>> > Follow me:http://twitter.com/dpp >>> > Surf the harmonics >>> >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Lift, the simply functional web framework http://liftweb.net >> Beginning Scala http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430219890 >> Follow me: http://twitter.com/dpp >> Surf the harmonics >> >> > > > > > -- Jonas Bonér twitter: @jboner blog: http://jonasboner.com work: http://crisp.se work: http://scalablesolutions.se code: http://github.com/jboner code: http://akkasource.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Lift" group. 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