Architecture

Actor Shell is a DUB workspace with four packages. The runtime is intentionally independent of graphics and OS windowing.

Packages

Package Role

libbeam_d

Core actor runtime: M:N fiber scheduler, lock-free MPSC mailbox, supervision (Phase 1–2)

libglaze_2d

2D graphics abstraction (Blend2D bindings, command batching) — Phase 3

libshell_bridge

OS / Erlang IPC and raw Win32/X11 bindings — Phase 4

actor_shell

Shell executable composing the libraries — Phase 5

Phases

  1. Phase 1 — Fiber scheduler + actor mailbox (libbeam_d)

  2. Phase 2 — Supervisor linking / restart strategies (libbeam_d)

  3. Phase 3 — Blend2D / libglaze_2d

  4. Phase 4 — libshell_bridge IPC + OS bindings

  5. Phase 5 — ActorShell UI composition

Constraints (runtime)

  • @nogc actor core; no UI or graphics imports in libbeam_d

  • Immutable messaging across actors for zero-copy passing

  • Prefer native extern© syscalls over heavy wrapper libraries

  • Unavoidable C/C++ (for example Blend2D) must be statically linked

Performance targets

  • Frame budget under 6.9 ms (144 Hz)

  • Sub-millisecond actor message delivery for input paths

  • Non-blocking responsiveness under background I/O load