signalsbased

Signalsbased is a term used in software engineering to describe architectures or programming styles that rely primarily on signals as the means of communication between components. In a signalsbased design, components interact by emitting signals that are observed by listeners or handlers, rather than invoking methods directly. This approach emphasizes loose coupling, modularization, and clear separation of concerns, and it can support both synchronous and asynchronous operation.

The concept is closely related to established ideas such as event-driven programming, the observer pattern, and signal-slot systems found in GUI frameworks. It often uses a centralized signal bus or broker, but it can also be implemented with direct bindings between producers and consumers. Signals may carry payloads that convey state changes, commands, or context information, enabling downstream components to react accordingly.

Key characteristics include decoupled producers and consumers, a mechanism for subscribing to and filtering relevant signals, and a dispatch strategy that determines when and how signals are delivered. Components may compose signals into pipelines or chains to implement complex workflows.

Benefits include improved modularity, testability, scalability, and the ability to evolve system behavior by reconfiguring signal routes. Drawbacks can include debugging complexity, difficulty in tracing signal flows, potential runtime overhead, and challenges ensuring consistency in distributed environments.

Signalsbased is commonly applied in UI frameworks, robotics, and event-driven or microservices architectures, where asynchronous messaging and loose coupling are advantageous. See also event-driven programming, signal-slot, publish/subscribe, and reactive programming.