default to unbounded buffer

.changeset/forty-beers-refuse.md

@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ You can use the `emit` helper to emit values to the stream. You can also use
 the `emit` helper to signal the end of the stream by using apis such as
 `emit.end` or `emit.fail`.
 
-By default it uses a buffer size of 4096 and a dropping strategy to prevent
-memory issues. You can customize the buffer size and strategy by passing an
-object as the second argument with the `bufferSize` and `strategy` fields.
+By default it uses an "unbounded" buffer size.
+You can customize the buffer size and strategy by passing an object as the
+second argument with the `bufferSize` and `strategy` fields.
 
 ```ts
 import { Effect, Stream } from "effect";

packages/effect/src/Stream.ts

@@ -382,9 +382,9 @@ export const asyncEffect: <A, E = never, R = never>(
  * You can also use the `emit` helper to signal the end of the stream by
  * using apis such as `emit.end` or `emit.fail`.
  *
- * By default it uses a buffer size of 4096 and a dropping strategy to prevent
- * memory issues. You can customize the buffer size and strategy by passing an
- * object as the second argument with the `bufferSize` and `strategy` fields.
+ * By default it uses an "unbounded" buffer size.
+ * You can customize the buffer size and strategy by passing an object as the
+ * second argument with the `bufferSize` and `strategy` fields.
  *
  * @example
  * import { Effect, Stream } from "effect"

packages/effect/src/internal/stream.ts

@@ -603,14 +603,14 @@ const queueFromBufferOptionsPush = <A>(
     readonly strategy?: "dropping" | "sliding" | undefined
   } | undefined
 ): Effect.Effect<Queue.Queue<A | typeof emit.pushEOF>> => {
-  if (options?.bufferSize === "unbounded") {
+  if (options?.bufferSize === "unbounded" || (options?.bufferSize === undefined && options?.strategy === undefined)) {
     return Queue.unbounded()
   }
   switch (options?.strategy) {
     case "sliding":
-      return Queue.sliding(options?.bufferSize ?? DefaultChunkSize)
+      return Queue.sliding(options.bufferSize ?? 16)
     default:
-      return Queue.dropping(options?.bufferSize ?? DefaultChunkSize)
+      return Queue.dropping(options?.bufferSize ?? 16)
   }
 }