Chapter 8

Remote Actors

Scala actors can communicate with each other not only within the same JVM address space, but also across virtual machines, and even across network nodes. To explain the constructs involved in using remote actors, in this chapter we will revisit the chat example application of Chapter 4. You will learn how to create remote actors, and how to address and communicate between remote actors.

The chat application of Chapter 4 creates an actor that is responsible for managing a chat room. Clients send various types of messages to the chat room actor, such as Subscribe and Unsubscribe messages. By making the chat room actor remotely accessible, the chat service can be used across a network.