simplified according to pipelines article

https://blog.golang.org/pipelines

main.go

@@ -3,59 +3,75 @@ package main
 import (
 	"bufio"
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
 	"os"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 )
 
-func expensive(worker int, task string) error {
-	time.Sleep(250 * time.Millisecond)
-	return fmt.Errorf("worker %d is done with %q", worker, task)
+func compute(id int, work <-chan string) <-chan error {
+	out := make(chan error)
+	go func() {
+		for w := range work {
+			time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
+			out <- fmt.Errorf("worker %d is done with %q", id, w)
+		}
+		close(out)
+	}()
+	return out
 }
 
-func worker(id int, work chan string, results chan error, wg *sync.WaitGroup) {
-	defer wg.Done()
-	for {
-		i, ok := <-work
-		if !ok {
-			return
-		}
-		results <- expensive(id, i)
-	}
-}
-
-func main() {
-	work := make(chan string)
-	results := make(chan error)
-
-	numWorkers := 4
-	wwg := &sync.WaitGroup{}
-	wg := &sync.WaitGroup{}
-	for w := 0; w < numWorkers; w++ {
-		wwg.Add(1)
-		go worker(w, work, results, wwg)
-	}
-
-	s := bufio.NewScanner(os.Stdin)
-	go func(wg *sync.WaitGroup) {
+func source(in io.Reader) <-chan string {
+	out := make(chan string)
+	s := bufio.NewScanner(in)
+	go func() {
 		for s.Scan() {
-			wg.Add(1)
-			work <- s.Text()
+			out <- s.Text()
 		}
 		if err := s.Err(); err != nil {
 			panic(err)
 		}
-		close(work)
-	}(wg)
-
-	go func() {
-		wwg.Wait()
-		wg.Wait()
-		close(results)
+		close(out)
 	}()
+	return out
+}
 
-	for e := range results {
-		fmt.Printf("received: %+v\n", e)
+func merge(cs []<-chan error) <-chan error {
+	out := make(chan error)
+
+	var wg sync.WaitGroup
+
+	output := func(c <-chan error) {
+		for n := range c {
+			out <- n
+		}
 		wg.Done()
 	}
+
+	wg.Add(len(cs))
+	for _, c := range cs {
+		go output(c)
+	}
+
+	go func() {
+		wg.Wait()
+		close(out)
+	}()
+	return out
+}
+
+func main() {
+	work := source(os.Stdin)
+	results := []<-chan error{}
+
+	workers := 4
+	for w := 0; w < workers; w++ {
+		results = append(results, compute(w, work))
+	}
+
+	out := merge(results)
+
+	for e := range out {
+		fmt.Printf("received: %+v\n", e)
+	}
 }