FAQs that need answers

[domenic]

• [x] Are you supporting object streams or only binary/string streams?
• [x] What are the main differences from Node.js streams?
• [x] How does this relate to "observables" or "async iterators"?
• [ ] What's the deal with this wait() pattern?

[Raynos]

The last question is interesting. Basically how do we compare similar async primitives

• callback / promise. The result of an operation that has a single async result or error
• stream, the result of an IO operation that has a series of values followed by end or error. note streams are ordered, i.e. the series of values is order specific. note streams respect a notion of back pressure, i.e. we can control memory usage.
• generator / iterator. A sequence primitive for ES6 that has a synchronous API
• FRP Event, a series of discrete values
• FRP Signal, a value over time, you can access the current value and be notified of changes to the value.
• CSP Channel, a queue from which you can take & put values. You can take / put either synchronously or asynchronously.
• Async iterator ( https://www.npmjs.org/package/async-iterator ). A (lazy) pull stream from which you can ask for a value or abort the entire stream. This pull stream does not do internal buffering

Note the term "observable" is ambigious, I personally interpret it as (FRP signal). (observ, observable, signaal, BaconJS.Property are all implementations of FRP signal)

Note that RX.js and reducers implementation of "observable" is different since they are things that know about error and end semantics and are thus closed to an async iterator or stream.

Given that whatwg/streams, gozala/reducers, rxJS/observable, async iterator are all things that have one of more values followed by end or error it sounds like a good idea to explicitly compare those.