Chapter 1. Reactive Programming with RxJava
RxJava is a specific implementation of reactive programming for Java and Android that is influenced by functional programming. It favors function composition, avoidance of global state and side effects, and thinking in streams to compose asynchronous and event-based programs. It begins with the observer pattern of producer/consumer callbacks and extends it with dozens of operators that allow composing, transforming, scheduling, throttling, error handling, and lifecycle management.
RxJava is a mature open source library that has found broad adoption both on the server and on Android mobile devices. Along with the library, an active community of developers has built up around RxJava and reactive programming to contribute to the project, speak, write, and help one another.
This chapter will provide an overview of RxJava—what it is and how it works—and the rest of this book will take you through all of the details of how to use and apply it in your applications. You can begin reading this book with no prior experience with reactive programming, but we will start at the beginning and take you through the concepts and practices of RxJava so that you can apply its strengths to your use cases.
Reactive Programming and RxJava
Reactive programming is a general programming term that is focused on reacting to changes, such as data values or events. It can and often is done imperatively. A callback is an approach to reactive programming ...
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