Poll: Are you using Akka from Java?

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Jonas Bonér

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Jun 7, 2012, 11:33:57 AM6/7/12
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Hi guys.

It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.

Bonus points:
If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
Akka from Java would be great.

If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.

Thanks a lot.

--
Jonas Bonér
CTO
Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
Phone: +46 733 777 123
Twitter: @jboner

√iktor Ҡlang

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Jun 7, 2012, 12:41:12 PM6/7/12
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On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 6:25 PM, Brian <sculld...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Jonas,

We use Java with Akka 1.3.1.  Not yet with 2.x, so have less experience with that.  In all a good experience, had some trouble with supervision but I think that's under control now.  I like the actor system enforced structure in 2.x series, that will help.  I think all we're waiting on is akka-camel to schedule the upgrade+migration to 2.x.

We'll ship 2.1-M1 (with Akka Camel) about a week after Scala 2.10-M4 is out (which will be out shortly)
 

It's been great for us - we're happy with it and are looking to move its usage to other modules.  One of the other modules would depend on clustering being available assuming we do things a similar way post-akka introduction.  Here's our pain points:
  • akka-spring module: it doesn't seem to do things the "spring way" always.  For example, we were unable to use the akka-spring approach to supervisors, and had to manage these manually.  Not sure what status is of this module for 2.x

I think there's a general mismatch between Spring and Akka, the main issue for 2.0 is that there's been no one who wanted to champion such a module.
 
  • lack of actor pool implementation: had to write our own based on untyped dispatcher to support load balancing and some additional supervision functionality the way we needed it done.  I think I saw this may be coming in 2.x, or at least some patch on the ML
Actor Pools have been replaced by Routers with Resizers in 2.0, which "just work" for both UntypedActors and Actors alike.
 
Thanks for the great product!

Thanks for the feedback!
Looking forward to hearing more when you've migrated to Akka 2.

Cheers,
 

Brian

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Viktor Klang

Akka Tech Lead
Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale

Twitter: @viktorklang

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 8, 2012, 2:34:19 AM6/8/12
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Thanks a lot guys. Very helpful. Keep it coming.


On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 6:25 PM, Brian <sculld...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, June 7, 2012 11:33:57 AM UTC-4, Jonas Bonér wrote:
>>
> Hi Jonas,
>
> We use Java with Akka 1.3.1.  Not yet with 2.x, so have less experience with
> that.  In all a good experience, had some trouble with supervision but I
> think that's under control now.  I like the actor system enforced structure
> in 2.x series, that will help.  I think all we're waiting on is akka-camel
> to schedule the upgrade+migration to 2.x.
>
> It's been great for us - we're happy with it and are looking to move its
> usage to other modules.  One of the other modules would depend on clustering
> being available assuming we do things a similar way post-akka introduction.
>  Here's our pain points:
>
> akka-spring module: it doesn't seem to do things the "spring way" always.
>  For example, we were unable to use the akka-spring approach to supervisors,
> and had to manage these manually.  Not sure what status is of this module
> for 2.x
> lack of actor pool implementation: had to write our own based on untyped
> dispatcher to support load balancing and some additional supervision
> functionality the way we needed it done.  I think I saw this may be coming
> in 2.x, or at least some patch on the ML
>
> Thanks for the great product!
>
> Brian
>
> --
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John Stanford

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Jun 8, 2012, 3:10:22 AM6/8/12
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Hi Jonas,

I'm not sure if you will be able to assess this from your responses, but it might be interesting to the community to get an idea of what percentage use akka/java, akka/scala, both.  Maybe whip up a quick survey at your favorite free site (i.e. http://www.surveymonkey.com/)…

Cheers,
John

Arnaud Bailly

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Jun 8, 2012, 2:58:06 AM6/8/12
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Hello,
We use akka 2.0.1 to schedule kind of "workflows" that transform
documents inside a documentation management system. So far the
experience is great. I had tried akka in scala and of course, Java
version is a bit more painful to write but not that much. We do not
use many fancy features of actors, only dispatchers and actor pools
(no supervision, but this should come in soon). We also use Spring as
our DI engine (not that I love it, though) but do not use spring-akka.
We do not use remote actors, yet, but this is also on our roadmap.

All in all, I find the documentation well-written, helpful and comprehensive.

My only request would be to enhance the testing experience for Java
guys. Maybe this is just a matter of documenting it in Java ?

Thanks a lot for the great job you are doing,
Arnaud

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 8, 2012, 3:19:55 AM6/8/12
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On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 9:10 AM, John Stanford <jxsta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jonas,
>
> I'm not sure if you will be able to assess this from your responses, but it
> might be interesting to the community to get an idea of what percentage use
> akka/java, akka/scala, both.  Maybe whip up a quick survey at your favorite
> free site (i.e. http://www.surveymonkey.com/)

Yeah. We did a real survey some years ago. Was interesting. But most
people didn't fill it in.

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 8, 2012, 3:21:53 AM6/8/12
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On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 8:58 AM, Arnaud Bailly <arnaud...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> We use akka 2.0.1 to schedule kind of "workflows" that transform
> documents inside a documentation management system. So far the
> experience is great. I had tried akka in scala and of course, Java
> version is a bit more painful to write but not that much. We do not
> use many fancy features of actors, only dispatchers and actor pools
> (no supervision, but this should come in soon). We also use Spring as
> our DI engine (not that I love it, though) but do not use spring-akka.
> We do not use remote actors, yet, but this is also on our roadmap.
>
> All in all, I find the documentation well-written, helpful and comprehensive.

Great.

>
> My only request would be to enhance the testing experience for Java
> guys. Maybe this is just a matter of documenting it in Java ?

Yeah. You are now the first one asking that. I have added a ticket.
Expect improvements soon.
http://www.assembla.com/spaces/akka/tickets/2200-improve-docs-on-how-to-test-java-based-akka-systems

Feel free to comment on the ticket for specific wishes.

Thanks.

>
> Thanks a lot for the great job you are doing,
> Arnaud
>
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>



Adrian Dozsa

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Jun 8, 2012, 4:35:11 AM6/8/12
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Hi Jonas,

I'm using Akka from Java, because introducing a new language to the project would be too complicated (no knowledge).
Started with a POC with Akka 1.3.1 and them moved almost seamlessly to Akka 2.0.
I like the Akka documentation, and the only thing I would say is to make sure the level of detail in the Java sections is the same as for Scala. A problem I ran into was finding the extension points (classes to extend) when the default behavior wasn't enough.
Looking forward to the clustering feature.

Cheers,
Adrian

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 8, 2012, 4:46:07 AM6/8/12
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On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 10:35 AM, Adrian Dozsa <adi....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jonas,
>
> I'm using Akka from Java, because introducing a new language to the project
> would be too complicated (no knowledge).
> Started with a POC with Akka 1.3.1 and them moved almost seamlessly to Akka
> 2.0.

Great to hear.

> I like the Akka documentation, and the only thing I would say is to make
> sure the level of detail in the Java sections is the same as for Scala. A

We want that to be the case. And are trying hard to make it that way.
I'd appreciated pointers to where we are lacking, and we'll fix it
ASAP.

> problem I ran into was finding the extension points (classes to extend) when
> the default behavior wasn't enough.

What do you mean exactly.

Thanks.
> --
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Adrian Dozsa

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Jun 8, 2012, 5:23:25 AM6/8/12
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I was trying to create some custom routers and dispatchers with a common task executor. But I got the necessary help from this group. So the details missing in the docs can be solved on this group.

I would like to see some best practices on using Akka in different context. Something like a cookbook based on the experienced of using Akka in different projects with different requirements. This would make a good topic for a book. And I think you guys have the necessary experience. So please find the time to do it :)

Keep up to good work,
Adrian
> akka-user+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 8, 2012, 5:27:06 AM6/8/12
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On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 11:23 AM, Adrian Dozsa <adi....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was trying to create some custom routers and dispatchers with a common
> task executor. But I got the necessary help from this group. So the details
> missing in the docs can be solved on this group.
>
> I would like to see some best practices on using Akka in different context.
> Something like a cookbook based on the experienced of using Akka in
> different projects with different requirements. This would make a good topic
> for a book. And I think you guys have the necessary experience. So please
> find the time to do it :)
>

right..and then we got world peace...

> Keep up to good work,

Thanks.
>> > akka-user+...@googlegroups.com.
>> > For more options, visit this group at
>> > http://groups.google.com/group/akka-user?hl=en.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jonas Bonér
>> CTO
>> Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
>> Phone: +46 733 777 123
>> Twitter: @jboner
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Akka User List" group.
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bruno darrigues

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Jun 8, 2012, 6:23:02 AM6/8/12
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Hi Jonas,

i am a RD Sofware architect in an citrus fruit telco operator. Our
development are in java based on application servers. we study akka to
scale our application server both at infrastructure level and business
level (persitence backend under mysql and/or noSQL). We think tha
actor will be a good solution for distributed locks.

in my first poc, i am happy with akka/java that fit all my initial
needs (gossiping) to demonstrate some potential.
i have posted in the ml somme piece of code in java with the actual
cluster api.

As it will be a huge step for us to initiate a first production
project in akka so migrate to scala too is not realistic yet ;-)

and as i say in french : " Akka c'est que du bonheur !" (i don't know
if you understand the play on word ;-))

so Thx for java api !
Cheers
Bruno


On 8 juin, 11:27, Jonas Bonér <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 11:23 AM, Adrian Dozsa <adi.do...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I was trying to create some custom routers and dispatchers with a common
> > task executor. But I got the necessary help from this group. So the details
> > missing in the docs can be solved on this group.
>
> > I would like to see some best practices on using Akka in different context.
> > Something like a cookbook based on the experienced of using Akka in
> > different projects with different requirements. This would make a good topic
> > for a book. And I think you guys have the necessary experience. So please
> > find the time to do it :)
>
> right..and then we got world peace...
>
> > Keep up to good work,
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Adrian
>
> > On Friday, June 8, 2012 11:46:07 AM UTC+3, Jonas Bonér wrote:
>

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 8, 2012, 6:45:43 AM6/8/12
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On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 12:23 PM, bruno darrigues
<bruno.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jonas,
>
> i am a RD Sofware architect in an citrus fruit telco operator. Our
> development are in java based on application servers. we study akka to
> scale our application server both at infrastructure level and business
> level (persitence backend under mysql and/or noSQL). We think tha
> actor will be a good solution for distributed locks.
>
> in my first poc, i am happy with akka/java  that fit all my initial
> needs (gossiping) to demonstrate some potential.
> i have posted in the ml somme piece of code in java with the actual
> cluster api.
>

Cool.

> As it will be a huge step for us to initiate a first production
> project in akka so migrate to scala too is not realistic yet ;-)

I understand.

>
> and as i say in french : " Akka c'est que du bonheur !" (i don't know
> if you understand the play on word ;-))

No, sorry.

>
> so Thx for java api !

Thank you.

Jason Mason

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Jun 8, 2012, 2:26:58 PM6/8/12
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akka 2.0.x on java exclusively here, for now. 

surveymonkey is probably a bit heavy weight, why not create a simple poll? i'm sure there are embeddable poll services out there, or maybe this: http://www.google.com/moderator/

+1 on the best practices or common usage patterns (gave the same feedback in the 2.0.1. RFF), in both scala AND java :)

Jonas Boner

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Jun 8, 2012, 3:39:47 PM6/8/12
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On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Jason Mason <jason....@gmail.com> wrote:
> akka 2.0.x on java exclusively here, for now.
>
> surveymonkey is probably a bit heavy weight, why not create a simple poll?
> i'm sure there are embeddable poll services out there, or maybe
> this: http://www.google.com/moderator/
>

Yeah. We should perhaps create a simple poll. Thanks for the tip.

> +1 on the best practices or common usage patterns (gave the same feedback in
> the 2.0.1. RFF), in both scala AND java :)

We hear you.

Thanks.

>
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morvael

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Jun 11, 2012, 7:50:28 AM6/11/12
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We do most of our development in Java, nothing to do with Scala. I read an interview with Jonas on Oracle's page in time Akka 2.0 was to be released and I fell in love (with Akka, not Jonas or Oracle :) ). What I lack most is of course javadoc, which I could pin into NetBeans without the need of looking up Akka tutorials and Scala docs (and sometimes they are misleading for a Java developer). Besides that I have no problems, Akka is great and it allows to easily create amazing applications without writing any synchronization code.

Jonas Boner

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Jun 11, 2012, 7:56:46 AM6/11/12
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On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:50 PM, morvael <mor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We do most of our development in Java, nothing to do with Scala. I read an
> interview with Jonas on Oracle's page in time Akka 2.0 was to be released
> and I fell in love (with Akka, not Jonas or Oracle :) ).

Great. :)

> What I lack most is
> of course javadoc, which I could pin into NetBeans without the need of
> looking up Akka tutorials and Scala docs (and sometimes they are misleading
> for a Java developer). Besides that I have no problems, Akka is great and it

I agree that we should create JavaDoc for the Java API classes.

> allows to easily create amazing applications without writing any
> synchronization code.

Great. Thanks for the feedback.

√iktor Ҡlang

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Jun 11, 2012, 7:58:04 AM6/11/12
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On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:56 PM, Jonas Boner <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:50 PM, morvael <mor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We do most of our development in Java, nothing to do with Scala. I read an
> interview with Jonas on Oracle's page in time Akka 2.0 was to be released
> and I fell in love (with Akka, not Jonas or Oracle :) ).

Great. :)

> What I lack most is
> of course javadoc, which I could pin into NetBeans without the need of
> looking up Akka tutorials and Scala docs (and sometimes they are misleading
> for a Java developer). Besides that I have no problems, Akka is great and it

I agree that we should create JavaDoc for the Java API classes.

How would that be possible?



--
Viktor Klang

Akka Tech Lead
Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale

Twitter: @viktorklang

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 11, 2012, 8:35:54 AM6/11/12
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On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:58 PM, √iktor Ҡlang <viktor...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:56 PM, Jonas Boner <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:50 PM, morvael <mor...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > We do most of our development in Java, nothing to do with Scala. I read
>> > an
>> > interview with Jonas on Oracle's page in time Akka 2.0 was to be
>> > released
>> > and I fell in love (with Akka, not Jonas or Oracle :) ).
>>
>> Great. :)
>>
>> > What I lack most is
>> > of course javadoc, which I could pin into NetBeans without the need of
>> > looking up Akka tutorials and Scala docs (and sometimes they are
>> > misleading
>> > for a Java developer). Besides that I have no problems, Akka is great
>> > and it
>>
>> I agree that we should create JavaDoc for the Java API classes.
>
>
> How would that be possible?

By creating Java interfaces for the Java API I suppose.

√iktor Ҡlang

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Jun 11, 2012, 8:39:18 AM6/11/12
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On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Jonas Bonér <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:58 PM, √iktor Ҡlang <viktor...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:56 PM, Jonas Boner <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 1:50 PM, morvael <mor...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > We do most of our development in Java, nothing to do with Scala. I read
>> > an
>> > interview with Jonas on Oracle's page in time Akka 2.0 was to be
>> > released
>> > and I fell in love (with Akka, not Jonas or Oracle :) ).
>>
>> Great. :)
>>
>> > What I lack most is
>> > of course javadoc, which I could pin into NetBeans without the need of
>> > looking up Akka tutorials and Scala docs (and sometimes they are
>> > misleading
>> > for a Java developer). Besides that I have no problems, Akka is great
>> > and it
>>
>> I agree that we should create JavaDoc for the Java API classes.
>
>
> How would that be possible?

By creating Java interfaces for the Java API I suppose.

That's out of the question for me since it'd introduce both severe maintenance overhead as well as performance implications since it'd turn things into invokeinterface.

Michael Nascimento

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Jun 11, 2012, 9:51:56 AM6/11/12
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Can't scaladocs be used to generate javadocs somehow?

Regards,
Michael

√iktor Ҡlang

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Jun 11, 2012, 10:04:06 AM6/11/12
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On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 3:51 PM, Michael Nascimento <mis...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can't scaladocs be used to generate javadocs somehow?


Todd Blank

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Jun 11, 2012, 12:52:41 PM6/11/12
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We're using it from Java. Mostly because 95% of the development team
is more comfortable with Java or not familiar with Scala at all, and I
don't want to be the only person that can maintain the application.

I started with a POC with 1.3.1, and migrated to 2.0RC1 when it was
available.

√iktor Ҡlang

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Jun 11, 2012, 12:58:53 PM6/11/12
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Cool

Anything good/bad?

Cheers,
V

Jonas Bonér

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Jun 11, 2012, 1:11:41 PM6/11/12
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On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Todd Blank <toddc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We're using it from Java.  Mostly because 95% of the development team
> is more comfortable with Java or not familiar with Scala at all, and I
> don't want to be the only person that can maintain the application.
>

Great. Thanks.

> I started with a POC with 1.3.1, and migrated to 2.0RC1 when it was
> available.
>
> On Jun 7, 8:33 am, Jonas Bonér <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>> Hi guys.
>>
>> It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.
>>
>> Bonus points:
>> If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
>> write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
>> Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
>> But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
>> Akka from Java would be great.
>>
>> If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
>> jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.
>>
>> Thanks a lot.
>>
>> --
>> Jonas Bonér
>> CTO
>> Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
>> Phone: +46 733 777 123
>> Twitter: @jboner
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Akka User List" group.
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>



Rory Graves

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Jun 11, 2012, 5:09:18 PM6/11/12
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Hey Jonas,

We are currently using Akka 2.0.1 from Java. Currently we mostly used
TypedActors injected via Guice. We picked this approach because we
can basically inject the interface in as we would with a standard
Guice inject, except that the object is an actor. This gives us two
benefits, firstly it makes the implementation of some complex multi-
threaded classes easy because the implementations are actors.
Secondly we can then remote components transparently.

Our application is a master server with lots of worker processes
(running on a grid), with interprocess communication using JMS.

We are now starting to scale up and out in various directions:
1) Simplify complex multi-threaded components into actors (within the
process)
2) Replacing inter-process communication (originally an embedded JMS
instance)
3) Fault tolerance (investigating the features in 2.1 in anger ;)

The featureset and documentation are excellent, the documentation
takes a special mention - it is some of the best documentation I have
seen. The mailing list is amazing.
The one area I find slightly frustrating (and this may be more general
that the 'Java' documentation is lack of more worked examples.

Cheers

Rory

Rory Graves

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Jun 11, 2012, 5:33:12 PM6/11/12
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One other minor bugbear (I know I've mentioned it before), not having
Akka in the central repo means
we have had to jump through a lot of hoops (and do some nasty hacks to
get it in (which slowed down
our initial prototyping quite a lot).

We are mainly a Java shop at the moment, but I am working on Scala ;)

Cheers

Rory

On 11/06/2012 22:09, Rory Graves wrote:
> Hey Jonas,
>
> We are currently using Akka 2.0.1 from Java. Currently we mostly used
> TypedActors injected via Guice. We picked this approach because we
> can basically inject the interface in as we would with a standard
> Guice inject, except that the object is an actor. This gives us two
> benefits, firstly it makes the implementation of some complex multi-
> threaded classes easy because the implementations are actors.
> Secondly we can then remote components transparently.
>
> Our application is a master server with lots of worker processes
> (running on a grid), with interprocess communication using JMS.
>
> We are now starting to scale up and out in various directions:
> 1) Simplify complex multi-threaded components into actors (within the
> process)
> 2) Replacing inter-process communication (originally an embedded JMS
> instance)
> 3) Fault tolerance (investigating the features in 2.1 in anger ;)
>
> The featureset and documentation are excellent, the documentation
> takes a special mention - it is some of the best documentation I have
> seen. The mailing list is amazing.
> The one area I find slightly frustrating (and this may be more general
> that the 'Java' documentation is lack of more worked examples.
>
> Cheers
>
> Rory
>
> On Jun 7, 4:33 pm, Jonas Bon�r <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>> Hi guys.
>>
>> It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.
>>
>> Bonus points:
>> If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
>> write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
>> Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
>> But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
>> Akka from Java would be great.
>>
>> If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
>> jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.
>>
>> Thanks a lot.
>>
>> --
>> Jonas Bon�r

Jonas Bonér

unread,
Jun 11, 2012, 5:40:05 PM6/11/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:09 PM, Rory Graves
<rory....@fieldmark.co.uk> wrote:
> Hey Jonas,
>
> We are currently using Akka 2.0.1 from Java.  Currently we mostly used
> TypedActors injected via Guice.  We picked this approach because we
> can basically inject the interface in as we would with a standard
> Guice inject, except that the object is an actor.  This gives us two
> benefits, firstly it makes the implementation of some complex multi-
> threaded classes easy because the implementations are actors.
> Secondly we can then remote components transparently.

Great.

>
> Our application is a master server with lots of worker processes
> (running on a grid), with interprocess communication using JMS.
>
> We are now starting to scale up and out in various directions:
> 1) Simplify complex multi-threaded components into actors (within the
> process)
> 2) Replacing inter-process communication (originally an embedded JMS
> instance)
> 3) Fault tolerance (investigating the features in 2.1 in anger ;)

Sounds like profit.

>
> The featureset and documentation are excellent, the documentation
> takes a special mention - it is some of the best documentation I have
> seen.

Thanks. Glad to hear that.

> The mailing list is amazing.

Thanks.

> The one area I find slightly frustrating (and this may be more general
> that the 'Java' documentation is lack of more worked examples.

You mean more complete examples rather than snippets in the reference docs?
Or do you mean that the snippets are too few?
Do you feel that it is not on par with Scala API?

Thanks for feedback.

/Jonas

>
> Cheers
>
> Rory
>
> On Jun 7, 4:33 pm, Jonas Bonér <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>> Hi guys.
>>
>> It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.
>>
>> Bonus points:
>> If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
>> write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
>> Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
>> But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
>> Akka from Java would be great.
>>
>> If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
>> jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.
>>
>> Thanks a lot.
>>
>> --
>> Jonas Bonér
>> CTO
>> Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
>> Phone: +46 733 777 123
>> Twitter: @jboner
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Akka User List" group.
> To post to this group, send email to akka...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to akka-user+...@googlegroups.com.
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>



√iktor Ҡlang

unread,
Jun 11, 2012, 5:43:49 PM6/11/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:33 PM, Rory Graves <rory....@fieldmark.co.uk> wrote:
One other minor bugbear (I know I've mentioned it before),  not having
Akka in the central repo means
we have had to jump through a lot of hoops (and do some nasty hacks to
get it in (which slowed down
our initial prototyping quite a lot).

We are mainly a Java shop at the moment, but I am working on Scala ;)


Akka 2.1 will be in Maven Central, so hang in there :-)

Cheers,
 
Cheers

Rory
> On Jun 7, 4:33 pm, Jonas Bonér <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>> Hi guys.
>>
>> It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.
>>
>> Bonus points:
>> If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
>> write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
>> Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
>> But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
>> Akka from Java would be great.
>>
>> If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
>> jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.
>>
>> Thanks a lot.
>>
>> --
>> Jonas Bonér

>> CTO
>> Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
>> Phone: +46 733 777 123
>> Twitter: @jboner

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Viktor Klang

Akka Tech Lead
Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale

Twitter: @viktorklang

Jonas Bonér

unread,
Jun 11, 2012, 5:44:05 PM6/11/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:33 PM, Rory Graves
<rory....@fieldmark.co.uk> wrote:
> One other minor bugbear (I know I've mentioned it before),  not having
> Akka in the central repo means
> we have had to jump through a lot of hoops (and do some nasty hacks to
> get it in (which slowed down
> our initial prototyping quite a lot).

Yeah. We know. We are actually working hard on this right now.
It is harder than it sounds, we even had to drop a bunch of modules to
get it in.
So the goal is that 2.1 and forward should be in Maven Central.
>> On Jun 7, 4:33 pm, Jonas Bonér <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>>> Hi guys.
>>>
>>> It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.
>>>
>>> Bonus points:
>>> If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
>>> write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
>>> Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
>>> But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
>>> Akka from Java would be great.
>>>
>>> If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
>>> jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jonas Bonér
>>> CTO
>>> Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
>>> Phone: +46 733 777 123
>>> Twitter: @jboner
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Akka User List" group.
> To post to this group, send email to akka...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to akka-user+...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/akka-user?hl=en.
>



--
Jonas Bonér

Rory Graves

unread,
Jun 11, 2012, 5:47:47 PM6/11/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com, Jonas Bonér
On 11/06/2012 22:44, Jonas Bon�r wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:33 PM, Rory Graves
> <rory....@fieldmark.co.uk> wrote:
>> One other minor bugbear (I know I've mentioned it before), not having
>> Akka in the central repo means
>> we have had to jump through a lot of hoops (and do some nasty hacks to
>> get it in (which slowed down
>> our initial prototyping quite a lot).
> Yeah. We know. We are actually working hard on this right now.
> It is harder than it sounds, we even had to drop a bunch of modules to
> get it in.
> So the goal is that 2.1 and forward should be in Maven Central.
I know you are. Having tried (and failed for similar reasons) to get a
module into the central repo,
I'm amazed people ever succeed for anything beyond toy projects.
>>>> Jonas Bon�r

Rory Graves

unread,
Jun 11, 2012, 5:55:19 PM6/11/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com, Jonas Bonér
More complete examples. The snippets are often useful for pointers in
the right direction. For example whilst playing with the IO module in
Scala (for my personal interest) I found there were missing bits in the
fragments, which means I could not directly get the example you
walkthrough working. Admittedly this was not helped by my incomplete
understanding/experience of monadic style programming.

I realised that the original question was about the Java versus Scala
API - nothing really jumps to mind as a huge gap.

Cheers

Rory

> Thanks for feedback.
>
> /Jonas
>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Rory
>>
>> On Jun 7, 4:33 pm, Jonas Bon�r <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>>> Hi guys.
>>>
>>> It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.
>>>
>>> Bonus points:
>>> If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
>>> write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
>>> Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
>>> But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
>>> Akka from Java would be great.
>>>
>>> If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
>>> jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jonas Bon�r

Eric MacAdie

unread,
Jun 11, 2012, 8:21:32 PM6/11/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com
What is the ETA on getting into Maven Central?

- Eric MacAdie

IL

unread,
Jun 12, 2012, 3:28:02 AM6/12/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com
No, I don't use Java at all.

IL


On Thursday, June 7, 2012 11:33:57 PM UTC+8, Jonas Bonér wrote:
Hi guys.

It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.

Bonus points:
If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
Akka from Java would be great.

If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.

Thanks a lot.

--
Jonas Bonér

√iktor Ҡlang

unread,
Jun 12, 2012, 3:37:10 AM6/12/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com
On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 2:21 AM, Eric MacAdie <emac...@gmail.com> wrote:
What is the ETA on getting into Maven Central?

For 2.1, which will be released around Scala 2.10, as for how long it will take to get things actually onto Maven Central, I doubt many know.

Cheers,
 


- Eric MacAdie



On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 4:43 PM, √iktor Ҡlang <viktor...@gmail.com> wrote:

Akka 2.1 will be in Maven Central, so hang in there :-)

Cheers,
 


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Jonas Bonér

unread,
Jun 13, 2012, 6:00:25 AM6/13/12
to Rory Graves, akka...@googlegroups.com
On Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 11:55 PM, Rory Graves
<rory....@fieldmark.co.uk> wrote:
Yeah, I know we are lacking here. We should have a set of runnable
real-world sample projects.
I just wish this could be contributed by the community, since we are
running so short on time.
We could focus on this, but that would be at the expense of fixing
bugs and sticking to the planned roadmap/features/releases.

>
> I realised that the original question was about the Java versus Scala
> API - nothing really jumps to mind as a huge gap.
>
> Cheers
>
> Rory
>
>> Thanks for feedback.
>>
>> /Jonas
>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Rory
>>>
>>> On Jun 7, 4:33 pm, Jonas Bonér <jo...@jonasboner.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi guys.
>>>>
>>>> It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.
>>>>
>>>> Bonus points:
>>>> If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
>>>> write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
>>>> Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
>>>> But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
>>>> Akka from Java would be great.
>>>>
>>>> If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
>>>> jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks a lot.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Jonas Bonér
>>>> CTO
>>>> Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
>>>> Phone: +46 733 777 123
>>>> Twitter: @jboner
>>> --
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Akka User List" group.
>>> To post to this group, send email to akka...@googlegroups.com.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to akka-user+...@googlegroups.com.
>>> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/akka-user?hl=en.
>>>
>>
>>
>



--
Jonas Bonér

Rory Graves

unread,
Jun 13, 2012, 6:31:17 AM6/13/12
to Jonas Bonér, akka...@googlegroups.com
I agree, I need to play my part too. Have been planning on writing a couple of these for a while.

Cheers

Rory

√iktor Ҡlang

unread,
Jun 13, 2012, 2:24:20 PM6/13/12
to akka...@googlegroups.com
Jason,

On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 7:56 PM, Jason Weden <jason...@gmail.com> wrote:
Jonas,

Thanks for reaching out.  Using akka with java and loving it.  Akka rocks!  Some feedback:

1.  Submitted a post some minutes ago on some confusion around Futures.successful in the docs but that could be my own misunderstanding.

I hope I cleared that up!
 
2.  The docs use the terms asynchronous and non-blocking.  Not sure what the difference is, some people use them interchangeably.  It would be nice to get clarification here especially since the terms are all over the place.

synchronous vs asynchronous  ~= "do now" vs "do whenever you can"

Difference:
Synchronous: bufferedReader.readLine.toUppercase  <--- toUppercase will be executed by the current thread when the readLine method has read a full line
Asynchronous: imaginaryNonblockingBufferedReader.readfutureLine.map(_.toUppercase) <--- toUppercase could be executed by any Thread, at any point in time after the line is availbable

blocking vs non-blocking ~= "do not return until operation is performed in full" vs "do what you can right now, but it might not be completed"

Difference:
Blocking: bufferedReader.readLine.toUppercase  <--- toUppercase will be executed by the current thread when the readLine method has read a full line
Asynchronous: imaginaryNonblockingBufferedReader.readfutureLine.map(_.toUppercase) <--- immediately returns a Future representing a line, and the calling thread can proceed immediately

Makes sense?

 
3.  Docs says that akka is for high-throughput.  However, I've heard that throughput can be taxed from non-blocking model with threads context switching more.  However, and to the contrary, the taxing context-switches from blocking calls is mentioned in Page 230 of Java Concurrency in Action .  So I have confusion over which is better and when.  What are the performance tradeoffs of blocking vs non-blocking at different scale levels?  -- good fodder for the intro piece of the akka docs. 

You should read these:

 
4.  Are there use cases in the world of concurrency where Akka is NOT a good fit...would love to have that documented.

Depends on the requirements... I'd say that Akka isn't a good fit if you want to do manual Threads & locks, because we haven't improved on that (and we don't think it's really the way to go)

Cheers,
 


On Thursday, June 7, 2012 11:33:57 AM UTC-4, Jonas Bonér wrote:
Hi guys.

It would help us a lot knowing how many of you are using Akka from Java.

Bonus points:
If you have some more time it would also be very helpful if you could
write a couple of lines what you would like to see improved in our
Java support (docs, API, supported feature set etc.).
But if you don't have time, then just a note on that you are using
Akka from Java would be great.

If you don't want to respond to the ML, then email me privately at
jonas AT jonasboner DOT com.

Thanks a lot.

--
Jonas Bonér
CTO
Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale
Phone: +46 733 777 123
Twitter: @jboner

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Viktor Klang

Akka Tech Lead
Typesafe - The software stack for applications that scale

Twitter: @viktorklang

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