RxJS: A Guide to Building a Reactive Split-Flap Display

In this article, the author challenges readers to build a reactive split-flap display using RxJS, a popular library for reactive programming in JavaScript. The article provides a step-by-step guide to building the display and highlights some advanced RxJS operators that are not commonly used.

The author begins by introducing the concept of a split-flap display, which is a mechanical display that uses rotating flaps to display information. They explain that they recently acquired a split-flap display at work and decided to use it as the basis for an RxJS exercise.

The article then dives into the details of building the display, starting with the HTML and CSS needed to create the basic structure. The author uses Angular to build the display, but notes that the concepts can be applied to other frameworks as well.

The real meat of the article comes in the form of the RxJS operators used to make the display reactive. The author uses operators like mergeMap, switchMap, and concatMap to handle user input and update the display accordingly. They also use the scan operator to keep track of the current state of the display.

Throughout the article, the author provides code snippets and explanations of how each piece of code works. They also offer tips and tricks for debugging and troubleshooting common issues.

Overall, this article is a great resource for developers looking to learn more about RxJS and reactive programming in general. The author's approachable writing style and clear explanations make even the most complex concepts easy to understand. By the end of the article, readers will have a solid understanding of how to build a reactive split-flap display using RxJS.