Why is Customer an Actor ?

[Muhammad Asif]

Hi All,
I am reading Chapter 6 of Craig Larman Book but one thing that i fail to understand is that how come customer is an Actor? I mean an Actor is some one who either intiates some event or gets a value from the use case. But all the things that are being done to post are thru the Cashier. And as such a post should have no concern that who the cashier is buying things for. The direct concern of POST should be with Cashier, Administrator but I cannot understand its link with customer.
Plz help me out!
Asif Abbasi

[Puja Potdar]

Hi,
IO think there is some confusion. It is specified in Larman check page P66 3rd para that Customer is not an actor but cashier is b'cose it tis the casheir who directly interacts with the system boundry not the customer. If it would have been organization then surely customer would have been an actor but here the system boundry is Pos.
Also check Pg. 121 -- system Sequence diagram
"Customer is not a grneerator of system events only cashier is:.
Puja

[josette rigsby]

A customer can be an actor if they redefine the system boundary. This is what Larman (very poorly) tried to explain.
codediva

[Muhammad Asif]

Thanx For ur Replies.
Actually, I was on page 55 and I saw the use case diagram where the customer is interacting with the POST and initiating the Buy Items and the Refund Purchased Items use case. It was because of that factor that I raised this question.
Thanx Again for ur replies
Asif Abbasi