03:43 <jdhorwitz> So this might be a stupid question, but when would you use behaviors vs functions? I'm coming from a lot of JavaScript lately, so I'm familiar with async vs sync code, but I'm struggling to know when to use a function and when to use a behavior

06:32 <vaninwagen> jdhorwitz: the key difference is async vs sync execution. everything happens in an actor. So if you call a function, you have sequential execution, and when you call a behaviour you pass the boundary of sequential execution. A behaviour will be executed within another actor, possibly on another thread at any time after invoking the behaviour

06:32 <vaninwagen> And, currently you only get garbage collection between behaviour execution. So only when a behaviour is done, the GC can kick in.

06:33 <vaninwagen> If you never use other actors and thus behaviours you eventually run into memory issues

06:35 <vaninwagen> Also if you want concurrency, you need behaviours, as one behaviour will only execute on one thread/core

13:29 <SeanTAllen> jdhorwitz: i think you are thinking about it from the wrong angle. you use behaviors to communicate between actors. the question is... "when do i need actors?" here's a techique that i've found works with folks new to the actor model. try to imagine that you have people working together to solve you problem. each person can do some part of the job. you want enough people to get it done quickly, but not so many that there's

13:29 <SeanTAllen> too muhc overhead managing them. So, how would you model your problem in that case. What would each person be responsible for?

13:58 <jdhorwitz> Thanks all, I think I am looking at it from the Javascript async/sync which is not the correct way. Perhaps I need to look into the actor model itself more deeply

14:00 <SeanTAllen> That would probably help jdhorwitz