The async invasion
Stephen Cleary explains why so many languages are adopting async/await and why that's a good thing.
| Talk Title | The async invasion |
| Speakers | Stephen Cleary (Faithlife) |
| Conference | O’Reilly Open Source Convention |
| Conf Tag | Put open source to work |
| Location | Portland, Oregon |
| Date | July 16-19, 2018 |
| URL | Talk Page |
| Slides | Talk Slides |
| Video | |
The async keyword seems to be taking over the world. After a humble beginning in F#, it quickly moved to C#/VB, and today it is invading many other “big” languages, including JavaScript (ES2017), Python, and C++ (“resumable functions” proposal). So what’s the big deal about async? Stephen Cleary explains why so many languages are adopting async/await and why that’s a good thing. Stephen begins with a conceptual overview of why asynchrony is important, especially in modern computing, and discusses how language support for asynchrony helps developers write clearer, more maintainable code. Stephen then shares examples in an abstract language and shows how new keywords simplify all previous patterns of asynchrony. You’ll learn why async needs to be a language feature—that is, how an actual async keyword helps developers express code in a way that a library could not. By the end of this session, you’ll have a clear grasp of why async is so helpful as well as a sense of how to apply it to your own projects, regardless of language.
