Quix

Distribution layer for Actix. Aims to follow conventions set up by actix, and implement distribution capabilties, similar to erlangs dist.

Messages

Both internal and user messages use Protobuf format for serialization

Processes

In order to better handle distribution, we will introduce a concept of a process, which is just an identified actor. This actor is not referneced through the Addr<A> struct, but rather through Pid<A>, which internally:

1. Wraps Addr<A> and transparently passes messages to this addr
2. Wraps Remote<A> and passes message to actor on remote node.

The Pid<A> can be obtained in 2 ways:

1. Using Process<A> instead of Context<A> - New context type for actors, which have stable identity.
2. Receiving a message containing a Pid<A> - Pids are transparent, and can be sent between nodes. The distribution subsystem should handle node lookup internally, thorugh the node-local registry.

ProcessRegistry

Is a node-local singleton, which contains a map of actors

struct ProcessRegistry {
    actors: HashMap<Uuid, Dispatcher>
}

Message dispatching

Each message which is passable accross network boundaries must be serializable using protobuf.

The ProcessDispatch trait is responsible for creating a Dispatcher which performs message serialization and dispatching. It can be implemented by a proc macro:

#[derive(quix::ProcessDispatch)]
#[dispatch(M1, M2)]
pub struct Act {}

impl Actor for Act {
    type Context = Process<Self>;
}
impl Handler<M1> for Act { ... }
impl Handler<M2> for Act { ... }