Reading

Understand how asynchronous JavaScript works:

• Read Henning's presentation about asynchronous Javascript (there's also a German video Show archive.org snapshot presentation in our shared folder)
• Read about Promise Show archive.org snapshot
• Read about async Show archive.org snapshot / await Show archive.org snapshot .
• Read about requestAnimationFrame Show archive.org snapshot and requestIdleCallback Show archive.org snapshot
  • Note that requestAnimationFrame can be used to reduce the number of repaints for animations. This might benefit your application performance.
• Read Don't throw exceptions from async functions
• What Color Is Your Function Show archive.org snapshot

Browse the internet to answer the following questions:

• What are "synchronous" or "blocking" APIs versus "asynchronous" APIs?
• Why does fetch() not simply return the response from the server?
• Why is asynchronous code such a big issue in JavaScript (as opposed to the code we usually write in Ruby)?
• What are "callbacks" in JavaScript? Can you find examples for libraries that use callbacks to deal with asynchronicity?
• What are "promises" in JavaScript? Can you find examples for libraries that use promises to deal with asynchronicity?

Exercises

atFullSecond()

Create an implementation of setTimeout that returns a promise rather than taking a callback. Name this new function atFullSecond, as it should wait for the remaining milliseconds until the next second starts. For example, at 13:23 and 441 milliseconds, atFullSecond(1) should wait for 559 milliseconds before triggering the callback function.

Internally, it can make use of setTimeout, but the API should be like that:

CopyatFullSecond(2).then(function() {
  console.log(`waited until exactly ${new Date}`);
});

new Date().getUTCMilliseconds() gives you access to the current millisecond offset.

As a bonus, also reject the promise if the caller passes number smaller than one to atFullSecond.

fetch()

Write a function that:

• Fetches a list of records via fetch() (either as a JSON array or as a pre-rendered HTML fragment).
• Inserts the list into the DOM.
• Slowly fades in the list.
• Allows its caller to run code when the fade-in animation is done.

Create three different implementations of this:

1. Using callbacks
2. Using promises and then()
3. Using promises and async / await