design question

[Vlad Dumitrescu]

Hi all,

I have a design decision to make and I feel it would be beneficial with some 
more and qualified opinions.

The data structure is an ordered set of entities (=regions), with rather 
heavy cross-referencing between them. Each is related to an owner process 
and messages will go between the regions (conceptually).

The first idea was to implement the regions as own processes, because the 
design is clearer and seems to be easier to see what's going on. On the 
other hand, it would be somewhat more difficult to debug and there are quite 
a lot (hundreds) of these regions alive (although not more than a few active 
at a time).

The other solution is to implement a manager process that will handle the 
message passing on behalf of the regions. The handling of the data woud be 
more complicated, though.

It isn't easy to switch between the paradigms, so I thought I'd try to 
choose before starting. I don't have experience with systems with that many 
long-lived processes running, so I am not sure how the system would behave 
with some 100's of regions and some tenths of owners...

I look forward to hearing *your* opinion! Thanks!¨
Best regards,
Vlad

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