Next Steps

You've learned the fundamentals of actor-based programming with Acton Reactive.

What You've Learned

In just a few pages, you've covered the essentials:

• Actors hold state and process messages one at a time
• Messages are the only way to communicate with actors
• Handlers define how actors respond: mutate_on for changes, act_on for reads
• Send fires a message without waiting (fire-and-forget)
• Reply envelopes enable request-response between actors
• Reply signals completion: Reply::ready() or Reply::pending(future)

These building blocks are enough to build real applications.

Recommended Path

Core Concepts (Next)

Deepen your understanding:

• What Are Actors? — The mental model behind actors
• Messages & Handlers — Deep dive into communication
• The Actor System — Managing your actors
• Supervision Basics — Handling failures

Building Apps

Practical patterns:

• Parent-Child Actors — Hierarchical organization
• Request-Response — Complex communication
• Error Handling — Building resilient systems
• Testing Actors — Testing strategies

Advanced Topics

• IPC — Cross-process communication
• Performance — Optimization strategies

Quick Wins to Try

Before diving into more documentation, extend what you've built:

Challenge 1: Multiple Actors

Create two counters running simultaneously:

let counter_a = builder_a.start().await;
let counter_b = builder_b.start().await;

counter_a.send(Increment).await;
counter_b.send(Increment).await;

Challenge 2: Add More Messages

Extend your counter with Decrement and Reset messages.

Challenge 3: Calculator

Build a calculator actor with Add, Multiply, and handlers that print results.

Common Questions

"When should I use actors vs regular async code?"

Actors shine when you have:

• State that needs to be modified safely from multiple places
• Long-lived processes that handle events over time
• Systems that benefit from isolation and message-passing

For simple one-shot async operations, regular async/await is fine.

"Is this production-ready?"

Yes. Acton Reactive is designed for production use. The patterns you've learned scale to complex systems.

Getting Help

• API Reference — docs.rs/acton-reactive
• Examples — GitHub examples

You're Ready

Start with something small. Experiment. That's how expertise develops.

Welcome to actor-based programming.

Continue to Core Concepts