Reactive

Another attempt to implement Reactive Programming with Javascript

Guide

Introduction

Reactivity is the ability of something to be reactive, and to be reactive means something can always react to something else. In case of Computer Science, it usually means the ability of something to react to any changes of data

There is many ways to implement this behaviour, ReactiveX like to call this behaviour as Observable, and many other call it Signal, but i always love to imagine it as State

a State always have a value, and its value can and will changes overtime to be observed later throughout the changes. In another word, it just a value wrapper with the ability to be observable

Lets start simple, this is how to create a State

import { state } from '@aldinh777/reactive';

const x = state(0);

now the variable x is a state with its current value is 0. to update its value, just call the variable as a function with an argument, and to get the current value, just call it without an argument

import { state } from '@aldinh777/reactive';

const x = state(0);

console.log(x()); // 0
x(4); // set the current value to 4
console.log(x()); // 4

Binding

Imagine two variable, one depends on the other one

# Procedural Simulation
a = 5
b = a * 2   # the value of b will be 10
print(a)    # 5
print(b)    # 10

a = 6
print(a)    # 6
print(b)    # 10

In the classical world Procedural Programming, changing the value of a won't affect the value of b. But in Reactive Programming, any change of a would directly affect the value of b, this ability is usually called binding. For the sake of clarity, lets just assume we have our own operator called (<-) to bind any states

# Reactive Simulation
a = 5
b <- a * 2  # the value of b will become whatever the value of a at the moment times 2
print(a)    # 5
print(b)    # 10

a = 6
print(a)    # 6
print(b)    # 12

This is how we acquire the same effect using this library

import { state, computed } from '@aldinh777/reactive';

const a = state(5);
const b = computed((a) => a * 2, [a]); // mark `a` as dependency

console.log('current value = ', b());
// output: current value = 10

a(6);

console.log('current value = ', b());
// output: current value = 12

The dependency could also be infered by usage without explicitly specifying the dependency array

const a = state(5);
const b = computed(() => a() * 2); // will automatically mark `a` as dependency

Observable

Let say we want to check if some data is greater than 10

# Procedural Simulation
a = 5
if (a > 10) {
    print('A is currently GREATER THAN 10')
}

a = 11  # (nothing happened...)
a = 9   # (nothing happened...)
a = 15  # (nothing happened...)

In Procedural Programming, this if condition will only check once. Changing the value of a won't do the check anymore. in Reactive, there is a way to always check the value of a whenever it changes. To make it easier to understand, let assume we have a new keyword called when

# Reactive Simulation
a = 5
when (a > 10) {
    print('A is currently GREATER THAN 10')
}

a = 11  # A is currently GREATER THAN 10
a = 9   # (nothing happened...)
a = 15  # A is currently GREATER THAN 10

Now, any changes to a will trigger check and only run the command only when the current value is larger than 10

This is how we obtain the same effect using this library

import { state } from '@aldinh777/reactive';

const a = state(5);
a.onChange((val) => {
    if (val > 10) {
        console.log('A is currently GREATER THAN 10');
    }
});

a(11); // A is currently GREATER THAN 10
a(9); // (nothing happened...)
a(15); // A is currently GREATER THAN 10

if there is multiple state to be observed, use the setEffect method

import { state, setEffect } from '@aldinh777/reactive';

const a = state(2);
const b = state(3);

setEffect(
    (a, b) => {
        if (a + b > 10) {
            console.log(`A and B combined which is ${a + b} is GREATER THAN 10`);
        }
    },
    [a, b]
); // mark `a` and `b` as dependencies

a(8); // A and B combined which is 11 is GREATER THAN 10
a(5); // (nothing happened...)
b(7); // A and B combined which is 12 is GREATER THAN 10

just as how computed works, setEffect could also infer its dependencies by usage

const a = state(2);
const b = state(3);

setEffect(() => {
    if (a() + b() > 10) {
        console.log(`A and B combined which is ${a() + b()} is GREATER THAN 10`);
    }
}); // automatically infer `a` and `b` as dependencies