From greg @end|ng |rom w@rne@@net  Sun Dec  6 04:22:12 2020
From: greg @end|ng |rom w@rne@@net (Gregory Warnes)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2020 22:22:12 -0500
Subject: [Rd] New pipe operator
In-Reply-To: <CAB8pepzDHvM+JJtOcSOudyJ0Fe6-Yk2sG7Ep7qDkOK52bcuwZw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <e55c2093-0bb5-5f9b-5521-0ca8bdf35953@gmail.com>
 <CAB8pepzDHvM+JJtOcSOudyJ0Fe6-Yk2sG7Ep7qDkOK52bcuwZw@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAKorm_usbqOAxS8Xk6BeeFbPK0rg1KwMNTavrDzRgm4We+mN4g@mail.gmail.com>

If we?re being mathematically pedantic, the ?pipe? operator is actually
function composition.

That being said, pipes are a simple and well-known idiom. While being less
than mathematically exact, it seems a reasonable   label for the (very
useful) behavior.

On Sat, Dec 5, 2020 at 9:43 PM Abby Spurdle <spurdle.a at gmail.com> wrote:

> > This is a good addition
>
> I can't understand why so many people are calling this a "pipe".
> Pipes connect processes, via their I/O streams.
> Arguably, a more general interpretation would include sockets and files.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_(Unix)
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Named_pipe
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_pipe
>
> As far as I can tell, the magrittr-like operators are functions (not
> pipes), with nonstandard syntax.
> This is not consistent with R's original design philosophy, building
> on C, Lisp and S, along with lots of *important* math and stats.
>
> It's possible that some parties are interested in creating a kind of
> "data pipeline".
> I'm interested in this myself, and I think we could discuss this more.
> But I'm not convinced the magrittr-like operators help to achieve this
> goal.
> Which, in my opinion, would require one to model programs as directed
> graphs, along with some degree of asynchronous input.
>
> Presumably, these operators will be added to R anyway, and (almost) no
> one will listen to me.
>
> So, I would like to make one suggestion:
> Is it possible for these operators to *not* be named:
>     The R Pipe
>     The S Pipe
>     Or anything with a similar meaning.
>
> Maybe tidy pipe, or something else that links it to its proponents?
>
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>
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[Rd] New pipe operator
Gregory Warnes