Pipes

[Sequoia]

How to accept an incoming stream, specifically output of another program piped into the user's program. Goal is to have >1 incoming chunk while keeping it as simple as possible.

also

recommend/link to stream-adventure in the docs for people who want to learn more about streams.

[ghost]

@Sequoia follow up on this? Are we done with this one?

[Sequoia]

Yeah sry didn't have time to try it this weekend! Will do presently :)

[ghost]

Do you think that we should mix this with arguments to support something like this?

cat macbeth.txt | solution.js --word=thou

Multiple tests could assert that the program displays the correct lines for a variety of --word arguments

[Sequoia]

hmmmmmm..... my knee jerk reaction is KISS & leave that out, as I outline here, but in that case the proposal was introducing hapi whereas in this it's building on/reinforcing an existing concept.

Yeah I say "do it" :+1: :ok_hand: :smiley_cat:

[ghost]

• [x] Add --word parameter
• [x] Update exercise verify
• [x] Update exercise problem.md file
• [x] Update boilerplate.js to suggest using minimist

[Sequoia]

all done?!

[Sequoia]

I'll review when I get a chance sry for delay!

[Sequoia]

wrt boilerplate.js I think it might be better to move some of that into the Example section of the Readme: learners should have to type at least some of that in themselves for the purposes of rote. Also I'm trying to keep English strings out of the boilerplate/solution as much as possible to ease eventual i18n. :pray:

[Sequoia]

Notes

• Add note about npm install minimist

• Add note about toString on buffers

  • heh actually console.log('x' + ...read()) casts buffer to str but console.log('x', ...read()) (i.e. 2 args for console.log does not. The latter is in the boilerplate
  • console.log("reading:" + process.stdin.read().toString()); does not work because readable is emitted with a null on end of input it seems :/

  process.stdin.on('readable', function() {
  var buffer = process.stdin.read();
  if(buffer === null) { return; }
  console.log("reading:" + buffer);
  });

  ^ This basically work

• boilerplate (console.log in on('readable'),) may actually lead the learner away from the solution-- it seems intuitive that cling should happen on readable but really it should (probably) happen on end
• note what clijs run does I think it should actually set up the env like it will be set up for verify, i.e. pipe data in & feed it a switch
• link to buffer docs?
• link to regexp.test
• note about splitting on lines
• link to process.stdin or whatever docs
• Note that we are keeping this simple & there’s a full lesson stream-adventure if they want to learn more about this exciting topic
• "Append to results string then operate on it on('end')" pattern is canonical but not necessarily obvious. I suggest adding note/example that highlights this technique
• I may shorten intro if that's alright

My Impression

I'd probably say that this lesson is "too hard" as it currently stands. It took me a minute to figure it out and I'm reasonably good at this stuff. I want to carefully avoid (as much as possible) learners getting "stuck", and I think this lesson would get people a lot of people stuck.

Proposal

1. Focus-group it some on IRC
2. Add hints
3. Find ways to make this one "easier"

[Sequoia]

Will create new ticket for revisions. Initial version is :+1: done.