should base R have a piping operator ?

On Oct 5, 2019, at 4:50 PM, Gabriel Becker <gabembecker at gmail.com> wrote:


iris %>% group_by(Species) %>% summarize(mean_sl = mean(Sepal.Length)) %>%
filter(mean_sl > 5)


were *parsed* as, for example, into

local({
           . = group_by(iris, Species)

           ._tmp2 = summarize(., mean_sl = mean(Sepal.Length))

           filter(., mean_sl > 5)
      })




Then debuggiing (once you knew that) would be much easier but behavaior
would be the same as it is now. There could even be some sort of
step-through-pipe debugger at that point added as well for additional
convenience.

There is some minor precedent for that type of transformative parsing:

expr = parse(text = "5 -> x")

expr

expression(5 -> x)

expr[[1]]

x <- 5


Though thats a much more minor transformation.