Base idea behind streamer.

streamer-concepts.js

// 1. Node code
function sphagetti(name, callback) {
  db.loadUser(name, function onUser(error, user) {
    if (error) return callback(error)
    db.query('SELECT * FROM store WHERE owner=?', user, function onQuery(error, items) {
      if (error) return callback(error)
      doSomething(items, callback)
    })
  })
}

// 2. Node without nesting

function user(name, callback) {
  db.loadUser(name, callback)
}
function items(error, name, callback) {
  if (error) return callback(error)
  db.query('SELECT * FROM store WHERE owner=?', user, callback);
}
function sphagetti(name, callback) {
  items(user(name), function onItems(error, items) {
    if (error) return callback(error)
    callback(doSomething(items))
  }
}

// 3. Let's invert a flow
function user(name) {
  return function(succes, fail) { db.getUser(name, succes, fail) }
}
function query(SQL, user) {
  return function(succes, fail) {
    user(function(user) { db.query(SQL, user, succes, fail) })
  }
}
function Do(action, items) {
  return function (success, fail) {
    items(function(items) { success(action(items)) }, fail)
  }
}
function items(name) {
  return query('SELECT * FROM store WHERE owner=?', user(name))
}

function sphagetti(name) {
  var myUser = user(name)
  var myItems = items(myUser)
  return Do(doSomething, myItems)
}

// 4. magic ?

function $(action) {
  return function() {
    var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments)

    return function (succes, fail) {
      var failure, tasks = args.slice(), values = []
      function callback(error) {
        if (error) fail(error)
        else succes.apply(null, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1))
      }

      !function next(error, value) {
        if (failure) return null
        if (error) return fail(failure = error)

        values.push(value)
        if (!tasks.length) return action.apply(null, values.concat[[callback]]))
        var task = tasks.shift()
        typeof(task) === 'function' ? task(next) : next(null, tasks)
      }(null, this)
    }
  }
}

function spaghetti(name) {
  var user = $(db.loadUser)(name)
  var items = $(db.query)('SELECT * FROM store WHERE owner=?', myUser)
  return $(doSomething)(myItems)
}

// 5. What if base layer was like $ ?
function spaghetti(name) {
  var user = db.getUser(name)
  var items = db.query('SELECT * FROM store WHERE owner=?', user)
  return doSomething(items)
}

Array.prototype.slice(arguments) should be Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments). And [].slice.call(arguments) is faster, especially when there will be a long scope chain lookup for Array. Also:

// 5. What if base layer was like $ ?

// why can't it be?
db.getUser = $(db.getUser);
db.query = $(db.query);
doSomething = $(doSomething);

Array.prototype.slice(arguments) should be Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments).

Yep thanks for pointing that out!

[].slice.call(arguments) is faster, especially when there will be a long scope chain lookup for Array

I thought creating a new array was more expensive. Regardless this code just illustrates idea so perf is not really important.

@michaelficarra Is the last paragraph question ?

If so, yes you can do it of course, it just point I'm trying to make is that, writing code like this:

function(a, b, callback) { ... }

quickly becomes unmanageable, in contrast to:

function(a, b) { return function callback() { .... } }

which is composition friendly.

In any case don't take this too seriously, I'm just playing with this idea ;)