Thespian
An experimental actor framework for Rust with a focus on ergonomics and first class async/await support.
NOTE: If you need a real actor framework, you should check out Actix instead. It provides a far more robust actor implementation and has direct support for building web severs.
Example Usage
use runtime::time::*;
use std::time::Duration;
use thespian::*;
#[derive(Debug, Default, Actor)]
pub struct MyActor {
count: usize,
}
// The `thespian::actor` attribute makes all methods defined
// in this impl block available as messages on the actor.
#[thespian::actor]
impl MyActor {
pub async fn add_count(&mut self, value: usize) -> usize {
// Simulate a slow, asynchronous operation, such as
// writing to a database.
Delay::new(Duration::from_secs(1)).await;
self.count += value;
self.count
}
}
#[runtime::main]
async fn main() {
let mut handle = MyActor::default().spawn();
for _ in 0..10 {
let id = handle
.add_count(1)
.await
.expect("Failed to invoke `add_id` on actor");
println!("New count: {}", id);
}
}Current Status
The basic functionality for defining actors and their messages is in place, as well as a rudimentary implementation of the actor runtime. The next steps are to expand and polish the library in various ways:
- Flesh out the actor API, e.g. support stopping actors and actor lifecycles.
- Improve code generation to make it more robust and flexible.
- Test the library in more real-world use cases to ensure it provides the necessary functionality.
- Benchmark and optimize the actor implementation.