How to (not) share variables

Problem: When actors or tasks alike share objects concurrently they must avoid data races. Locks have serious disadvantages. How can we make data sharing safe without using locks?

share actors instead of variables

Solution: Don't share memory. Instead define an actor that serves the object to its clients. Start it and share the actor link and its interface. Thus you share memory by communicating.

define a message API

write a behavior

share the actor link or name

use actor infrastructure libraries

There are Actors infrastructure libraries which can ease your use of such servers:

• Guards: Actors guarding access to mutable variables and
• GenServers: Abstracting out concurrency to generic servers.