vide/docs/tut/crash-course/6-root.md
2023-12-07 17:26:01 +00:00

2.3 KiB

Root Reactive Scopes

Reactive scopes cannot be created on their own - they must be created within another reactive scope so that it can be tracked and later destroyed when it is no longer needed.

This is the purpose of mount(), which creates an initial "root", or "top-level" reactive scope, which all other reactive scopes, such as ones created by effect(), can stem from.

When this root reactive scope is destroyed, it will ensure all other reactive scopes created within it are also destroyed, ensuring everything is cleaned up properly.

local source = vide.source
local effect = vide.effect

local function App()
    local count = source(0)

    effect(function()
        print(count())
    end)
end


App() -- will error since effect() was not called within a reactive scope

vide.mount(App) -- works!

Mounting returns a function that when called will destroy its reactive scope, along with any other reactive scopes created inside it.

local unmount = mount(App)

unmount()

Vide's reactivity can be represented graphically, as a reactive graph.

The reactive graph for the above example looks like so:

%%{init: {
    "theme": "base",
    "themeVariables": {
        "primaryColor": "#1B1B1F",
        "primaryTextColor": "#fff",
        "primaryBorderColor": "#1B1B1F",
        "lineColor": "#79B8FF",
        "tertiaryColor": "#161618",
        "tertiaryBorderColor": "#161618"
    }
}}%%

graph

subgraph root
    direction LR
    count --> effect
end

When the root reactive scope created by mount() is destroyed, the effect scope will also be destroyed since it was created within it.

This is important because you may have an effect that updates the property of a UI instance, meaning the effect is referencing and holding that instance in memory. The effect being destroyed will remove this reference, allowing the instance to be garbage collected.

You don't need to worry about ensuring all your effects are created within a root reactive scope, since you should be creating all your UI and corresponding effects within a top-level mount() call that puts all your UI together. So it is safe to assume that any effect you create will be created under this top level scope. Vide will prevent you from accidently doing otherwise anyways.