JavaScript Callbacks Continuation (synchronous and asynchronous)

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Example

Callbacks can be used to provide code to be executed after a method has completed:

/**
 * @arg {Function} then continuation callback
 */
function doSomething(then) {
  console.log('Doing something');
  then();
}

// Do something, then execute callback to log 'done'
doSomething(function () {
  console.log('Done');
});

console.log('Doing something else');

// Outputs:
//   "Doing something"
//   "Done"
//   "Doing something else"

The doSomething() method above executes synchronously with the callback - execution blocks until doSomething() returns, ensuring that the callback is executed before the interpreter moves on.

Callbacks can also be used to execute code asynchronously:

doSomethingAsync(then) {
  setTimeout(then, 1000);
  console.log('Doing something asynchronously');
}

doSomethingAsync(function() {
  console.log('Done');
});

console.log('Doing something else');

// Outputs:
//   "Doing something asynchronously"
//   "Doing something else"
//   "Done"

The then callbacks are considered continuations of the doSomething() methods. Providing a callback as the last instruction in a function is called a tail-call, which is optimized by ES2015 interpreters.



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