Comments on: Fast AS3 Signals with SignalsLite

By: Kevin Newman

Kevin Newman — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:51:23 +0000

Hi Jackson! I don’t know where this will end up – it takes so much boilerplate to set this all up, and then I’m not entirely sure how well the interface/contract model will be received (I may try working that into Backstage2D if I’m ever able to make any progress on that – it’s a hacky unfinished mess right now – all hobby work so far).

I did add something like a GenericSignal test in the repo since this post that performs pretty well on AVM2 based runtimes (but not on iOS) which takes advantage of that “as” performance enhancement: https://github.com/CaptainN/SignalsLite/blob/master/performance-test/CallbacksTest.as

As far as HaXe goes – I just haven’t had the time to really dig in. Some of the questions I would have revolve around what the various features actually compile down to – for example I know (think) that some features like typedef (which other features are based on) are strictly compile time features, and don’t necessarily lead to runtime performance boost – though like I said, I haven’t had the time to dive in and learn the ins and outs. Type params though seem awesome – like generics in C#. I can think of many uses for such a feature.

By: Jackson Dunstan

Jackson Dunstan — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:26:48 +0000

This example is based on the performance test from Jackson Dunstan’s CallbackTest which I borrowed (I hope that’s ok!):

That’s more than OK! 🙂

I’m interested to see where the strong typing takes you. The biggest downside (IMO) to TurboSignals is what others are mentioning: the need to name a public function onSignal0.

Perhaps, as John Suggests above, a port to HaXe would help out somewhat. For example, using a “Function” type is replaced rather cleanly with a “SignalArg0,SignalArg1->Void” type (change, add, or remove types as needed) and they also support generics/templates through “type params”:

http://haxe.org/ref/type_params

By: Samuel Asher Rivello

Samuel Asher Rivello — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:29:51 +0000

AS3-Signals is great.

Here is a slideshow, GIT Code Sample, and screencast video about the fantastic AS3-Signals.

http://www.rivellomultimediaconsulting.com/as3-signals-introduction/

By: Kevin Newman

Kevin Newman — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:35:36 +0000

In reply to Simon Richardson.

Yes exactly. I actually used Jackson’s research (in his “Callback Strategies” – the previous post to his TurboSignals post) to implement SignalsLite, and modified his Callback test – specifically the Runnable example – to test out some ideas.

The difference between TurboSignals and a signals by contract paradigm that I’m working on, is TurboSignals requires you to implement a method called onSignal0, and the arguments passed to dispatch are not typed, where I’m looking to define a formal contract between the class that sends signals, and the consumer. This will allow more appropriate signal names, and compile time argument type checking. Of course, just using onSignal0 is easier (as is using SignalLite), but it’d be nicer to define the signal handlers descriptively (onMouseClicked, etc.).

I will cop to having missed the TurboSignals post until I was pretty far down this rabbit hole though (otherwise I might have just started from that code base). My original intent was to just make a very small Signals implementation (SignalLite and SlotLite), but I couldn’t resist chasing down even greater performance wins. 🙂

By: Simon Richardson

Simon Richardson — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:17:19 +0000

Seems you’ve found something very similar to Jackson Dunstan here : http://jacksondunstan.com/articles/585

By: Kevin Newman

Kevin Newman — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:48:42 +0000

In reply to John Travolta. I really wish I had any idea at all who posted that. Thanks for the kind words Mr. Travolta! :-)

By: John Travolta

John Travolta — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:46:12 +0000

Hey it’s cool Thanks.
I just see your post on haXe google group too.
A haXe port of SingnalsLite can be nice too, that’s true