I am currently attempting to become proficient in using ReactiveUI
(https://github.com/reactiveui/ReactiveUI) for
WPF and cross-platform mobile development. In order to understand the
paradigm I am first trying to understand the core concepts of reactive
programming in general using Reactive Extensions (Rx).
I am using the online book http://www.introtorx.com by
Lee Campbell, which so far is excellent.
My method is to use LinqPad (http://www.linqpad.net)
to run the examples and play around with different Rx queries. If you do
not have LinqPad, go get it now...I will wait.
Why LinqPad you ask? Why
not just use Visual Studio? Well,
because Visual Studio is mind numbingly slow.
LinqPad is extremely fast and doesn’t get in the way of your cognitive
flow. Trust me, in the time it takes VS
to compile and run a simple Rx query you will be off reading Reddit or Facebook.
Now
that you have LinqPad, you may find it tedious to run Reactive based code. This is because you need to add references
and namespaces. You can, and I suggest
that you do use LinqPad to download built in Rx samples, which work out of the
box, since all of the references are built in.
You could just overwrite one of these templates and piggyback on the
references, but I will show you how to setup your own.
1) Open the LinqPad
installation folder and create a References sub-folder
Default location is C:\Program Files
(x86)\LINQPad4\References
2) Add the following dll’s
to the reference folder.
The way I obtained the
dll’s was to create a project in Visual Studio and then use nuget/Package
Manage Console to add Reactive Extensions (install-package Rx-Main). I then
went to the download directory and copied the dll’s. If you purchase the full
version of LinqPad you can use nuget directly.
System.Reactive.Core.dll
System.Reactive.Interfaces.dll
System.Reactive.Linq.dll
System.Reactive.PlatformServices.dll
System.Reactive.Windows.Threading.dll
3) Create a new query
(File->New Query). And add the following code:
If you attempt to run it now it will not work due to missing
references.
4) Hit F4. That will open
the Query properties screen and allow you to add references. Use the Browse
button
to locate the dll’s in the References folder created in step 1.
5) Select the “Additional
Namespace Imports” tab and add the following namespace.
6) Hit OK. You should now
be able to run you Reactive Extension queries in LinqPad.
One thing to note is that you may need to add
more namespace imports based on what
reactive objects you use. A few that I needed right away were:
System.Reactive.Disposables
System.Reactive.Linq
System.Reactive.Subjects
Happy Coding
