Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the Web
JavaScript is one of the main programming languages to develop highly rich responsive and interactive Web applications. In these kinds of applications, the use of asynchronous operations that execute callbacks is crucial. However, the dependency among nested callbacks, known as callback hell, can ma...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Graz University of Technology
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Journal of Universal Computer Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://lib.jucs.org/article/72205/download/pdf/ |
| _version_ | 1830134950255394816 |
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| author | Paul Leger Hiroaki Fukuda Ismael Figueroa |
| author_facet | Paul Leger Hiroaki Fukuda Ismael Figueroa |
| author_sort | Paul Leger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | JavaScript is one of the main programming languages to develop highly rich responsive and interactive Web applications. In these kinds of applications, the use of asynchronous operations that execute callbacks is crucial. However, the dependency among nested callbacks, known as callback hell, can make it difficult to understand and maintain them, which will eventually mix concerns. Unfortunately, current solutions for JavaScript do not fully address the aforementioned issue. This paper presents Sync/cc, a JavaScript package that works on modern browsers. This package is a proof-of-concept that uses continuations and aspects that allow developers to write event handlers that need nested callbacks in a synchronous style, preventing callback hell. Unlike current solutions, Sync/cc is modular, succinct, and customizable because it does not require ad-hoc and scattered constructs, code refactoring, or adding ad-hoc implementations such as state machines. In practice, our proposal uses a) continuations to only suspend the current handler execution until the asynchronous operation is resolved, and b) aspects to apply continuations in a non-intrusive way. We test Sync/cc with a management information system that administers courses at a university in Chile. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T07:23:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-00e763bef7394393a2c8f067c7d35674 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0948-6968 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T07:23:08Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | Graz University of Technology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Universal Computer Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-00e763bef7394393a2c8f067c7d356742022-12-21T21:58:42ZengGraz University of TechnologyJournal of Universal Computer Science0948-69682021-09-0127995597810.3897/jucs.7220572205Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the WebPaul Leger0Hiroaki Fukuda1Ismael Figueroa2Universidad Católica del NorteShibaura Institute of TechnologyPragmatics LabJavaScript is one of the main programming languages to develop highly rich responsive and interactive Web applications. In these kinds of applications, the use of asynchronous operations that execute callbacks is crucial. However, the dependency among nested callbacks, known as callback hell, can make it difficult to understand and maintain them, which will eventually mix concerns. Unfortunately, current solutions for JavaScript do not fully address the aforementioned issue. This paper presents Sync/cc, a JavaScript package that works on modern browsers. This package is a proof-of-concept that uses continuations and aspects that allow developers to write event handlers that need nested callbacks in a synchronous style, preventing callback hell. Unlike current solutions, Sync/cc is modular, succinct, and customizable because it does not require ad-hoc and scattered constructs, code refactoring, or adding ad-hoc implementations such as state machines. In practice, our proposal uses a) continuations to only suspend the current handler execution until the asynchronous operation is resolved, and b) aspects to apply continuations in a non-intrusive way. We test Sync/cc with a management information system that administers courses at a university in Chile.https://lib.jucs.org/article/72205/download/pdf/Callback HellAspect-Oriented ProgrammingContin |
| spellingShingle | Paul Leger Hiroaki Fukuda Ismael Figueroa Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the Web Journal of Universal Computer Science Callback Hell Aspect-Oriented Programming Contin |
| title | Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the Web |
| title_full | Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the Web |
| title_fullStr | Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the Web |
| title_full_unstemmed | Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the Web |
| title_short | Continuations and Aspects to Tame Callback Hell on the Web |
| title_sort | continuations and aspects to tame callback hell on the web |
| topic | Callback Hell Aspect-Oriented Programming Contin |
| url | https://lib.jucs.org/article/72205/download/pdf/ |
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