JavaScript Signals tutorial: implementing a signals library step by step

Gonzalo Ruiz de Villa
gft-engineering
Published in
11 min readApr 12, 2023

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Introduction to Signals

In recent years, the signals pattern has gained significant traction in the world of web development. As the demand for more dynamic, responsive, and efficient applications grows, developers are increasingly turning to reactive programming techniques to meet these challenges. Among these techniques, the signals pattern has emerged as a popular choice in various modern JavaScript frameworks, enabling the creation of powerful and versatile applications. For example, Angular just released the RFC of Angular Signals and Preact has support for signals since v10.

The signals pattern facilitates the automatic propagation of changes to data throughout an application, making it easier to manage complex, interconnected state. By employing signals, computed signals, and effects, developers can create applications that efficiently react to user input or data changes, reducing the need for manual state management and improving application performance.

As the adoption of the signals pattern continues to increase, it is worth understanding its core concepts and learning how to apply it in our projects. This article will explore the basics of signals in JavaScript, illustrating their implementation and use in a simple HTML application. By…

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Gonzalo Ruiz de Villa
gft-engineering

Engineer, Google Developer Expert , co-founder of Adesis Netlife, Chlydro and Kenobi Ventures. CTO @ GFT Group