Relationship between PFA syntax and Hack pipes

[js-choi]

People have expressed fears about Hack pipes interfering with the proposal for partial function application (PFA). The explainer should address this.

Hack pipes and PFA syntax are not mutually exclusive and can live together. Although PFA syntax has received strong pushback from many TC39 representatives since 2018 (see #221 and HISTORY.md), this has had nothing to with Hack pipes.

I myself am planning to work with @rbuckton to fight for PFA syntax in TC39 later, although it will be an uphill battle. This battle would be uphill even if we were proposing F# pipes rather than Hack pipes.

(To emphasize, it is likely than an attempt to switch from Hack pipes to F# pipes will result in TC39 never agreeing to any pipes at all; syntax for partial function application (PFA) is similarly facing an uphill battle in TC39 (see HISTORY.md). I personally think this is unfortunate, and I am willing to fight again for F# pipes and PFA syntax, later—see #202 (comment). But there are quite a few representatives (including browser-engine implementers; see HISTORY.md about this again) outside of the Pipe Champion Group who are against improving tacit programming (and PFA syntax) in general, regardless of Hack pipes.)

In any case, the explainer does not talk about this, and this is a frequently asked question. This is a deficiency of the explainer. We need to fix this sometime.

This issue tracks the fixing of this deficiency in the explainer (lack of discussion regarding TypeScript’s current limitations). Please try to keep the issue on topic (e.g., comments about how F# pipes would work better with PFA syntax would be off topic), and please try to follow the code of conduct (and report violations of others’ conduct that violates it to tc39-conduct-reports@googlegroups.com). Please also try to read CONTRIBUTING.md and How to Give Helpful Feedback. Thank you!