alien-signals-php

PHP port of stackblitz/alien-signals 3.1.2. Line-for-line, same algorithm, same flags, same DLL semantics.

Why

alien-signals is a small reactive-signals library: signals, computed values, effects, an automatic dependency graph with pull-on-read and push-mark-dirty propagation. It was previously available only on JavaScript runtimes via npm. This artifact ports the same algorithm to PHP 8.1+ so any PHP consumer can use it without a JS bridge.

Layout

src/
  ReactiveFlags.php       Bit-flag constants
  ReactiveNode.php        Base node (deps, depsTail, subs, subsTail, flags)
  Link.php                Doubly-linked-list edge between dep and sub
  ReactiveSystem.php      Algorithm core: link, unlink, propagate,
                          checkDirty, shallowPropagate, startTracking,
                          endTracking (port of system.ts)
  SignalNode.php          value + previousValue
  ComputedNode.php        value + getter
  EffectNode.php          fn
  Signal.php              User-facing get / set
  Computed.php            User-facing get
  Effect.php              User-facing stop
  Signals.php             Static facade: signal, computed, effect, batch,
                          untrack, effectScope, trigger (port of index.ts)

Usage

use Hbt\AlienSignals\Signals;

$a = Signals::signal(1);
$b = Signals::computed(fn($prev) => $a->get() * 2);
$e = Signals::effect(fn() => print($b->get() . "\n"));

$a->set(5);    // prints 10
Signals::batch(function () use ($a) {
    $a->set(7);
    $a->set(9);
});            // prints 18 once
$e->stop();

Install

Composer (once published or via path repository):

{
    "require": {
        "hbt/alien-signals": "^3.1.2"
    }
}

For local development, point composer at the path:

{
    "repositories": [
        { "type": "path", "url": "../alien-signals-php" }
    ],
    "require": {
        "hbt/alien-signals": "*"
    }
}

Test parity

21 PHPUnit tests cover the load-bearing cases ported from upstream's Vitest spec files:

• signal read/write semantics, value-equality skip
• computed memoisation and chained propagation
• effect lifecycle (eager run, dispose, nested stop)
• batch coalescing
• untrack via Signals::untrack and via direct setActiveSub
• diamond topology — both signal-only and computed-via-checkDirty
• signal-revert: writing then reverting must NOT force recompute
• effectScope dispose

vendor/bin/phpunit
OK (21 tests, 57 assertions)

Threading

Single-threaded per request, same as upstream. The shared Signals static state (activeSub, activeScope, batchDepth, notify queue) is request-scoped under typical fpm / cli usage. Use Signals::reset() to clear state between tests or REPL evaluations within a single process.

Versioning

Tracks upstream npm. When stackblitz publishes a new version, this artifact moves to the same version with the corresponding system.ts and index.ts changes ported.

License

MIT — same as upstream.