title: Why isn't ask defined directly on ActorRef for Akka?
body: <p>I am learning about Akka, and while exploring the API, I came across something kind of curious (at least to me). The <code>tell</code> function is defined directly on the ActorRef class. However, the <code>ask</code> function is declared in the AskSupport trait. I can't think of any good reasons why they needed a seperate trait for <code>AskSupport</code> rather than including <code>ask</code> in the API for ActorRef (and <code>?</code> in the API of ScalaActorRef). Would anyone care to enlighten me on the reasoning behind this?</p>