jed

// a few ideas for unifying async "promises"

// there are three types of callbacks:
function callback( data ){ sys.puts( "called on both success and error" ) }
function success( data ){ sys.puts( "called on success only" ) }
function error( data ){ sys.puts( "called on error only" ) }

// for any async function, offer a single optional callback.
posix.cat( "config.json", callback );

jed

// thoughts for v3 of the (fab) API.
// 
// each handler gets two function arguments:
// (1) a stream back to the last app, and
// (2) a stream forward to the next app, or a 404 if there is none.
// 
// (i haven't figured out elegant names, so let's just call them respond for and request)
// 
// all information about the request is streamed, so that you need to 
// 

jed

module.exports = require( "fab" )

()
  ( "/page1", "page1" )
  ( "/page2", "page2" )
()

jed

/*

about (fab) v3
==============

the first version of (fab) was mostly a toy project, to see how function
chaining could help create a concise javascript DSL for building web
apps.

the second version of (fab) smoothed out some edges and focused on the

jed

require("http").createServer( function( req, res ) {

  res.write( "this will silently hang because sendHeader was not called" )
  res.close();

}).listen( 8000 )

jed

var
  assert = require( "assert" ),
  test = require( "fab/tests" );

function myBinaryApp( app ) {
  return function() {
    require( "sys" ).puts( "myBinaryApp called..." )
    return app.call( this );
  }  
}

jed

// this is an example of what the first pass at native (fab) templates will look like:

with ( require( "fab" ) ) fab

  ( listen, 0xFAB )

  ( /\// )

    ( /1/ )
      ( "This is a template with no variables: a unary app" )

jed

// the upcoming (fab) rewrite is also sympathetic to folks that don't care for parentheses:

with ( require( "fab" ) ) fab

( listen, 0xFAB

, /\//

  , /1/
    , "This is a template with no variables: a unary app"

jed

changes coming in (fab) v0.5.0

here's a quick outline of some of the stuff i'm working on in the next release of (fab). once i have the internals working again, i'll push a branch for folks to play with.

100% async

right now, (fab) is mostly async, but relies on sync in one case: apps need to return a listener if they require more information to finish. this is a problem because apps may not know if they need more information until they hear from their upstream apps.

for example, a template app needs to return a function based on a string, but that string may come from an async file or http request, so the app can't reliably respond immediately.

jed

// async: manually sets the length of a function by wrapping it in another with the desired length

fab.arity = function( num ) {
  var fn = function(_){ fn.apply( this, arguments ) }
    , ends = [ "this(", ")" ]
    , args = [];

  while ( --num ) args[ num - 1 ] = "_" + num;

  this( Function( "fn", ends.join( fn ).replace( "_", args ) ) );