Rxcel

An Rx-based implementation of a miniature Excel to demonstrate the concept of "reactive graphs".

History

This was an early example to demonstrate "reactive graphs" where nodes are subjects and edges are computations. For example, an entity whose value can change over time can be represented as a BehaviorSubject<T>. Computations can then observe changes to the entity's values in order to recompute other dependent entity values.

Using Excel where cells are modeled subjects and computations are derived from user-supplied formulae, the reactive graph consists of CombineLatest operators that lift the formula over cells. For example, when editing cell C1 with formula =A1+B1, this really turns into a A1.CombineLatest(B1, (a1, b1) => a1 + b1).Subscribe(C1) computation, where the user's formula was lifted from int to IObservable<int>. The destination cell is used as an observer, the source cells are used as an observable, and get combined using CombineLatest.

An alternative way of writing CombineLatest could be lift, to make this more clear:

Func<IObservable<T1>, IObservable<T2>, IObservable<R>> Lift<T1, T2, R>(this Func<T1, T2, R> f)
{
    return (IObservable<T1> xs, IObservable<T2> ys) => Observable.CombineLatest(xs, ys, f);
}

This sample was later rewritten using IReactiveProxy to build a persisted Excel in the cloud:

• Creation of a new worksheet corresponds to stream creation operations for the cells. E.g. excel://bart/demo/sheet/cell/A1.
• Editing of a formula corresponds to subscription creation operations to connect the source and destination cells (using CombineLatest). E.g. excel://bart/demo/sheet/formula/C1.
• Putting a value in a cell corresponds to deleting a subscription for the cell, if any exists (using the identifier as shown above), and then performing an OnNextAsync into the cell's stream.
• A local UI subscribes to all the cells using a mechanism that can funnel data back to the UI, e.g. using a WebSocketObserver. Because streams are "behavior subjects", the latest value is received immediately.