JavaScript Async - Custom Async
Written by Ian Elliot   
Monday, 05 November 2018
Article Index
JavaScript Async - Custom Async
A Piece of Pi
Using a Callback

Using a Callback

In most cases you will also need to include a callback so that the program using your function can make use of its results. This is not difficult to add, and a final version of the function complete with a callback parameter and a suitable callback function is:

computePiAsync(displayResult);

function displayResult(pi){
  result.innerHTML = pi;
}

function computePiAsync(callback) {
  var state = {};
  state.k = 0;
  state.pi = 0;
  window.addEventListener("message",computePi, false);
  function computePi() {
   if (state.k >= 10000000){
    callback(state.pi);
    return;
   };
   var i;
   for (i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
     state.k++;
     state.pi += 4 * Math.pow(-1, state.k + 1) /
                                     (2 * state.k - 1);
   }
   window.postMessage("fireEvent", "*");
  }
  window.postMessage("fireEvent", "*");
}

Avoiding State – Yield

 Final version in book

Summary

  • If you need to make your own long running functions non-blocking then you can either use another thread or split the computation into short sections.

  • Threads are more powerful, but not all browsers support them and they can be difficult to implement.

  • The basic idea in creating a non-blocking function without threads is to make them run in small chunks of time, releasing the UI thread often enough to keep the UI responsive.

  • The main problem is is to keep the state of the computation so that it can be resumed after it has released the UI thread.

  • In most cases you need to write the function using a state object to record the important information so that the function resumes from where it left off.

  • To schedule the next run of the function you can use setTimeout or postMessage to place the function on the event queue.

  • An alternative way to keep the state of the function is to write it as a generator and use the yield instruction to pause the function and next to resume it.

  • If you use yield the system will look after the state for you and you can even pause for loops and generally write the function without having to worry about restoring state.

 

Now Available as a Book:

 JavaScript Async

cover

You can buy it from: Amazon

Contents

  1. Modern JavaScript (Book Only)
  2. Events,Standard & Custom
  3. The Callback
      extract - The Callback & The Controller
  4. Custom Async - setTimeout, sendMessage & yield
      extract - Custom Async
      extract - Avoiding State With Yield 
  5. Worker Threads
      extract - Basic Worker ***NEW
      extract - Advanced Worker Threads 
  6. Consuming Promises 
  7. Producing Promises
      extract - The Revealing Constructor Pattern
     
    extract - Returning Promises
     
    extract - Composing Promises
  8. The Dispatch Queue
      extract - Microtasks
  9. Async & Await
      extract -  Basic Async & Await
      extract -  DoEvents & Microtasks
  10. Fetch, Cache & Service Worker
      extract - Fetch  
      extract - Cache
     
    extract -  Service Workers

Also by Ian Elliot 
Just JavaScript: An Idiomatic Approach
Just jQuery: The Core UI 
Just jQuery: Events, Async & AJAX  

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Last Updated ( Saturday, 10 November 2018 )