Playground for bikeshedding the topic token?

[bogdanbiv]

The Record & Tuple proposal have used a playground page to make their proposal playable in the browser.
As I understand things, their playground transpiles users' script to currently supported syntax (polyfill) in the browser,
SRC: https://rickbutton.github.io/record-tuple-playground/,

Would this work for picking the token? I mean would it add value to trying characters combos?
Instead of the Syntax Type dropdown in the UI, have a text input that makes some initial validations??? and replaces the topic token throughout the source - if we get to errors we know outright what's the holdup.

The proper playground itself (from the records proposal): https://rickbutton.github.io/record-tuple-playground/#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

[js-choi]

@bogdanbiv: Hi, sorry for the late reply.

It's a good idea. I and some other TC39ers have thought about making a pipe playground webpage before, back in the years when this proposal was more active. That's one of the reasons why we designed @babel/plugin-proposal-pipeline-operator to support multiple topic tokens, configured by a topicToken property—to support such experimentation.

From what I recall, @babel/plugin-proposal-pipeline-operator was nearly done. What it would take is someone making a playground webpage that showcases the plugin and allows easy code conversion between:

• Versions that use different potential topic tokens: e.g., ~, ^^, etc.
• Versions that don't use pipe operator at all: e.g., nested expressions or temporary variables.

Unfortunately, the proposal's champions, including myself, haven't been working much on those playground plans or anything about the pipe operator over the past several years. This is due to lack of volunteer time…and because adding new syntax to the language has become much more difficult. We've generally been prioritizing lower-hanging fruit like standard functions.

But there are some new recent plans for TC39 TG5 to try, perhaps, to conduct real usability studies on to study how different designs of the pipe operator would affect developer experience. A playground would probably be valuable for any such usability studies, so it still might be worth trying to implement. We're just volunteers, so it's a matter of finding volunteer time while we also work on other TC39 proposals…and our day jobs.