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robertpenner edited this page Apr 19, 2011 · 23 revisions

Signals: Think Outside the Event.

Signals are light-weight, strongly-typed AS3 messaging tools.
Wire your application with better APIs and less boilerplate than AS3 Events.

Concept

A Signal is essentially a mini-dispatcher specific to one event, with its own list of listeners.
A Signal gives an event a concrete membership in a class.
Listeners subscribe to real objects, not to string-based channels.
Event string constants are no longer needed.
Signals are inspired by C# events and signals/slots in Qt.

Syntax

// with EventDispatcher
button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClick);

// Signal equivalent; past tense is recommended
button.clicked.add(onClicked);

I am still looking for impressions, critiques and suggestions.
My email is info at robertpenner.com.
I’m @robpenner on Twitter.

Background on AS3 Events