Hi there. IMO, there are three issues there: familiarity, mental model, and caveats (using $ and not getting reactive updates in some cases).
Focusing on mental model, maybe my mental model can inspire yours? Here it goes.
- For me, `$: dependent variable = expression(independent variables)`, is an equation that Svelte guarantees will hold across the single-file component (SFC). So whenever an independent variable change, the dependent variable is also updated to maintained the equation.
- Caveat: In the statement `$: dependent variable = expression(independent variables)`, the expression language is JavaScript but the semantics of the statement are Svelte's (i.e. *Svelte's* scoping rules apply, not JavaScript's). SvelteScript is so close from JavaScript that it feels intuitive to use but confusing when the two differ. In a poor analogy, just like using a word that means something in French, another in Spanish, and wrongly guessing the source language (hence the meaning) that applies.
Then:
- `$: {some statements here featuring independent variables}`. *Svelte's* scoping rules apply (only the variables visible in the block are targeted by Svelte's reactivity). This is not an equation anymore, it is the expression of an effect triggered by change in dependent variables.
Why this is natural to me? At the specification level, reactive systems are specified with three core syntactic constructs:
1. event -> reaction
2. dependent variable = function (independent variable)
3. dependent variable The first item means is where you specify what happens when an event occurs. for instance button click -> (counter The second item is the same as lambda abstraction. Say `area = f(length, width)`. That's true all the time and allows using `area` everywhere needed instead of `f(length, width)`. But by referential equality rules, you could absolutely do away with `area` - at the expense of course of less clear and more verbose code (and probably less performant too)
The third item is assignment, and is used to describe changes in the state of the component. As a rule, (reaction, new state) = f(event, current state). So the third item describes how to get new state from current state. The first item describes how to get the reaction from the event and current state. The second item is optional but helps a lot readability, conciseness, and performance (not computing `area` twice if you use it twice).
In Svelte syntax:
1 is $: {reaction code here} (event is some change in value of variables scoped in the code)
1 bis: is the same case as 1 with a different syntax when the reaction is a (re)render. Whenever the dependent variables in scope change, a rerender reaction is executed.
2 is $: x = f(a,b,c,...) (Note that the right hand is a single variable name)
3 is any assignment occurring in the SFC.
Not sure if that helps, but well, that's how I stay away from the pitfalls of mixing SvelteScript and JavaScript. Identify events, state variables, the reaction to the events, and the state changes. Then translate that into SvelteScript.