HxSignal: Simple Haxe Signal

My motivation was to create a simple API for callback functions, I thought that Haxe must have a signals and slots toolkit generic, type safe, flexible and efficient. There are already fantastic signal toolkits for Haxe, but I wanted to give to signal this touch or tweak I think were missing. I like the implementation of msignal, so my first try was to give it my touch but soon I realized it will be different taking C++ Boost and Qt signals as base.

Basic usage

// initialisation
var voidSignal  = new Signal<Void -> Void>();
var eventSignal = new Signal<AnyObject -> String -> Void>();
var signal1     = new Signal<Int -> Void>();

// connecting, adding or binding slot
voidSignal.connect(function() {});

// connecting once (disconnected the first time it is called)
eventSignal.connect(function(origin, type) {}, Once);

// disconnecting slot
function slot1(num : Int) : Void { }

signal1.disconnect(slot1);

// emitting
voidSignal.emit();
eventSignal.emit(this, "clicked");
signal1.emit(123);

Advanced usage

// connecting n times (disconnected the nth time it is called)
eventSignal.connect(function(origin, type) {}, Times(n));

// Add slots to groups
signal1.connect(slot1, 1); // slot1 added to group 1
signal1.connect(slot1bis, 2); // slot added to group 2

// disconnect all slots in group 1
signal1.disconnectGroup(1);

// priority
signal1.connect(slot1, 1, AtBack);
signal1.connect(slot1bis, 1, AtFront); // slot1bis is called first then slot1

Responding a signal

// slot that adds 1 to emitted value
function add1(value : Int) : Int {
	return value + 1;
}

// slot that add 2 to emitted value
function add2(value : Int) : Int {
	return value + 2;
}

var signalWithResponse = new Signal<Int->Int>();
signalWithResponse.connect(add1);
signalWithResponse.connect(add2);

var result = signalWithResponse.emit(3); // result == 5

Why is result 5? Because signal always return the last result as default behavior, in this case add2(3) has returned 3 + 2 = 5

Handling the signal responses

Let's add a results processor...

// responses == [add1(x), add2(x)] where x is the emitted integer
signalWithResponse.resultsProcessor = function (responses:Array<Int>) {
	var result = 0;
	for (i in responses)
		result += i;
	return result;
}
  
var processedResult = signalWithResponse.emit(3); // result == 9

This time emit function returns the processed value and it is 9 because resultsProcessor has added the responses of call add1(3) and add2(3) (4 and 5 respectively).

Also

• disconnectAll() // disconects all the slots
• block(slot, true) // block slot (not called) until block(slot, false) is called
• isBlock(slot)
• numSlots // amount of slot connected
• and more features are coming