README.md
1# from2 [![Flattr this!](https://api.flattr.com/button/flattr-badge-large.png)](https://flattr.com/submit/auto?user_id=hughskennedy&url=http://github.com/hughsk/from2&title=from2&description=hughsk/from2%20on%20GitHub&language=en_GB&tags=flattr,github,javascript&category=software)[![experimental](http://hughsk.github.io/stability-badges/dist/experimental.svg)](http://github.com/hughsk/stability-badges) #
2
3`from2` is a high-level module for creating readable streams that properly handle backpressure.
4
5Convience wrapper for
6[readable-stream](http://github.com/isaacs/readable-stream)'s `ReadableStream`
7base class, with an API lifted from
8[from](http://github.com/dominictarr/from) and
9[through2](http://github.com/rvagg/through2).
10
11## Usage ##
12
13[![from2](https://nodei.co/npm/from2.png?mini=true)](https://nodei.co/npm/from2)
14
15### `stream = from2([opts], read)` ###
16
17Where `opts` are the options to pass on to the `ReadableStream` constructor,
18and `read(size, next)` is called when data is requested from the stream.
19
20* `size` is the recommended amount of data (in bytes) to retrieve.
21* `next(err)` should be called when you're ready to emit more data.
22
23For example, here's a readable stream that emits the contents of a given
24string:
25
26``` javascript
27var from = require('from2')
28
29function fromString(string) {
30 return from(function(size, next) {
31 // if there's no more content
32 // left in the string, close the stream.
33 if (string.length <= 0) return next(null, null)
34
35 // Pull in a new chunk of text,
36 // removing it from the string.
37 var chunk = string.slice(0, size)
38 string = string.slice(size)
39
40 // Emit "chunk" from the stream.
41 next(null, chunk)
42 })
43}
44
45// pipe "hello world" out
46// to stdout.
47fromString('hello world').pipe(process.stdout)
48```
49
50### `stream = from2.obj([opts], read)` ###
51
52Shorthand for `from2({ objectMode: true }, read)`.
53
54### `createStream = from2.ctor([opts], read)` ###
55
56If you're creating similar streams in quick succession you can improve
57performance by generating a stream **constructor** that you can reuse instead
58of creating one-off streams on each call.
59
60Takes the same options as `from2`, instead returning a constructor which you
61can use to create new streams.
62
63### See Also
64
65- [from2-array](https://github.com/binocarlos/from2-array) - Create a from2 stream based on an array of source values.
66- [from2-string](https://github.com/yoshuawuyts/from2-string) - Create a stream from a string. Sugary wrapper around from2.
67
68## License ##
69
70MIT. See [LICENSE.md](http://github.com/hughsk/from2/blob/master/LICENSE.md) for details.
71