[pjmlp]

Unix pipes only work in the CLI with a text based interface and even then they break down when the applications aren't able to parse the data.

So one always ends up massaging the data to make them be understood.

Piping concept was actually more powerfull in Xerox PARC systems by using the respective language REPL and do LINQ style data transformations.

However the problem of the article is that once you scale out of the CLI, you need a standard communications API to this type of stuff.

One that is able work in distributed systems, dealing with all types of failure issues.

If anything, native programming on the mobile offers some kind of piping thanks to intents, contracts and extensions.

[fractallyte]

The Amiga ecosystem perfected this: most (good) software featured an ARexx 'port' - an API, based on the REXX language, that enabled any one program to communicate with another. Or one could simply write an ARexx script to automate a process.

Here's an example of the first occasion I seriously used this, when producing a 3D anaglyphic animation for video: graphics frames - two images for left and right - were rendered in VistaPro (the original 3D landscape generator); as soon as rendering was complete, ImageFX (image processing software) picked up the output and combined the channels to make an anaglyph; this was then sent to the PAR animation recorder (a video recorder). So, THREE separate large packages from different software companies, working in synchrony with each other via ARexx. The whole operation worked so smoothly and efficiently, first time, that I still recall it with awe.

Sadly, yet another killer Amiga feature that never made it to modern computing...

[pjmlp]

The libraries concept used to extend the OS were another cool Amiga feature.

I would say the closest we have today to ARexx experience are Powershell and AppleScript.