kitten.sh
1---
2title: Introduction
3order: 0
4---
5
6Wonka is a lightweight iterable and observable library loosely based on
7the [callbag spec](https://github.com/callbag/callbag). It exposes a set of helpers to create streams,
8which are sources of multiple values, which allow you to create, transform
9and consume event streams or iterable sets of data.
10
11## What it is
12
13Wonka is a library for streams _and_ iterables that behaves predictably
14and can be used for many problems where you're dealing with streams of
15values, asynchronous or not.
16
17It's similar to [RxJS](https://github.com/ReactiveX/rxjs) in that it enables asynchronous programming with
18observable streams, with an API that looks like functional programming on
19iterables, but it's also similar to [IxJS](https://github.com/ReactiveX/IxJS) since Wonka streams will run
20synchronously if an iterable source runs synchronously.
21
22It also comes with many operators that users from [RxJS](https://github.com/ReactiveX/rxjs) will be used to.
23
24## Compatibility
25
26Wonka is written in [Reason](https://reasonml.github.io/), a dialect of OCaml, and can hence be used
27for native applications. It is also compiled using [BuckleScript](https://bucklescript.github.io) to plain
28JavaScript and has typings for [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) and [Flow](https://flow.org/).
29
30This means that out of the box Wonka is usable in any project that use the following:
31
32- Plain JavaScript
33- TypeScript
34- Flow
35- Reason/OCaml with BuckleScript
36- Reason/OCaml with `bs-native`
37- Reason/OCaml with Dune and Esy
38
39In summary, Wonka provides a consistent interface in and works across
40TypeScript/Flow/Reason/OCaml environments with full type safety.
41
42## About the docs
43
44As mentioned in the prior section, Wonka supports not one but a couple of
45environments and languages. To accommodate for this, most of the docs
46are written with examples and sections for TypeScript and Reason.
47
48We don't provide examples in most parts of the docs for Flow and OCaml because
49their respective usage is almost identical to TypeScript and Reason, so for
50the most part the examples mostly deal with the differences between a
51TypeScript and a Reason project.