actors

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

Actors

   <theory> A model for {concurrency} by {Carl Hewitt}.  Actors
   are autonomous and concurrent {objects} which execute
   {asynchronously}.  The Actor model provides flexible
   mechanisms for building parallel and {distributed} software
   systems.

   (http://osl.cs.uiuc.edu/).

   ["Laws for Communicating Parallel Processes", C. Hewitt et al,
   IFIP 77, pp. 987-992, N-H 1977].

   ["ACTORS: A Model of Concurrent Computation in Distributed
   Systems", Gul A. Agha <[email protected]>, Cambridge Press, MA,
   1986].

   (1999-11-23)