[pevey]

This might be the impression on first glance because it uses the word "state." But keep reading, and its much more akin to what Solid is doing. In fact, the new docs openly credit the work Solid's team is doing. They also credit Knockout's approach form way back in 2010.

[pcthrowaway]

Under the hood it's doing something more similar to solid, but the API exposed is a step in the direction of React (it doesn't expose the signals to the user). It's not quite React either because there's no 'setter', just a different way to opt in to reactivity which also (IIUC) makes it possible in .js/.ts files

[sprkv5]

For a second, ignore Hooks, Signals and Runes, and look at the way Runes were presented in the video "Introducing Runes.. with Rich Harris". You will find this presentation very similar to but much shorter than "React Today and Tomorrow and 90% Cleaner React With Hooks" video. Both of them talk about:

1. primitives for managing state - $state vs useState

2. removal of lifecycle mechanisms - onMount vs componentDidMount

3. replacing lifecycle mechanisms with new primitives - $effect vs useEffect

It's like the Svelte team took a leaf out of React team's book on how to upgrade a framework - this is evident by the way these features are presented as opt-in like how React marketed Hooks as opt-in. I would go on to predict that the upgrade to Runes will just like the upgrade to Hooks. Developers will use it and then love it - because it presents improvements to the way codebases will be structured and maintained just like React did with Hooks. This is really a Hooks moment for Svelte. Good job Rich and the Svelte team!