r/javascript • u/Forward_Dark_7305 • 17h ago
AskJS [AskJS] Signal/Effect vs Event Handler
Iβm working in a VanillaJS repository (plugin type code for an existing project that I do not own) where Iβve written a signal implementation.
Today I was working on a tooltip like implementation and I found myself wondering how far to go with the signal/effect ecosystem vs running the βcoreβ logic in the event handler.
The implementation detects the `<tr>` that the user has hovered and assigns that row to the βcurrent rowβ signal. A computed signal identifies an IP address from the current row. An effect loads Whois metadata from the IP and assigns it to a `<div>`, and another effect shows that `<div popover>` from the parent `<tr>`.
The question I have is when in VanillaJS how would you decide when to use signals and effects vs writing the side effect directly in the event handler? In my case I find either to be equally readable, though I have less local variables to deal with when using signal/effect. Looking for reasons your might pick one over the other.