We Deserve a Better Streams API for the Web
summary
Web Streams cause hidden buffers, lots of promises, and surprising leaks so Next.js quietly creates 250 ReadableStream objects to move one chunk and tee() buffers grow forever per the spec. The replacement is small and concrete: just iterators, pull‑through transforms, explicit backpressure and batching. Benchmarks claim 22–125× faster across runtimes, real fixes for React SSR deadlocks and connection pool exhaustion, and a reference impl plus repo to validate the numbers.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:43Web Streams: an order of magnitude slower. Why it matters
- 1:07Your 20% Off 🤫
- 3:00Five problems with the API: boilerplate, locks, hidden buffers, promises, chaos
- 5:27tee() will eat your heap — and the spec designed it that way
- 8:58Real bugs: Next.js, AWS SDK, Node Fetch, React SSR
- 13:21The new design: streams are just iterators
- 16:19Backpressure that actually bites + full API walkthrough
- 22:56Benchmarks: up to 125× faster across every runtime
- 26:35Summary + how to get started
- 30:33Q&A
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