3 ms·

In the browser, Javascript (outside of webworkers) is single-threaded, and while running it blocks the browser run-loop (for the given webpage.) This means the

by mattdw 11y ago

In the browser, Javascript (outside of webworkers) is single-threaded, and while running it blocks the browser run-loop (for the given webpage.) This means the page can't accept or respond to any incoming events. It's "blocked" from interaction.

mpweiher 11y ago
Yes, I am aware of that. It used to be "blocked" meant "process is waiting for an external event, usually I/O". Doing computation was typically referred to as "busy". "Non-blocking" meant "without putting the process to sleep". There seems to be a shift in the meaning of this particular piece of terminology that I find interesting, because it seems to reflect the reality that "computers" actually do very little "computing". Instead computers mainly communicate, and even the CPUs themselves probably spend most of their time waiting on main memory (60ns) rather than doing actual arithmetic (sub ns in most cases).
- couchand 11y ago
  Just to get a little more specific with this: the shift is in the accepted "main engine of computation" (to make up a mediocre term). We used to have something of an engineer's viewpoint, that the physical location of the electrical operation of the mathematics (i.e., the CPU) was this main engine. It's been a long road, but the new viewpoint is a bit more philosophical: the main engine is the human-computer nexus. Of course, "human" in the above isn't strictly correct, since we know that computers talk to each other all the time, too. Indeed, when that happens the main engine of computation isn't really one or the other of the computers, but the link between them (i.e., the protocol). So now "blocking" means requiring the main engine of computation to "sleep" and wait for "external input". For a human UI this means the classic sense of waiting on the wetware end, but it can just as easily mean waiting on the hardware end. We strive to build responsive systems, so we wish for them to be "non-blocking" in every case. This means, if the human wants to communicate to the computer, it shouldn't be prevented to because the computer is currently working on a solitary operation. Ultimately it's the same principle we've already accepted from the reverse direction.

by mattdw 11y ago

mpweiher 11y ago

Yes, I am aware of that. It used to be "blocked" meant "process is waiting for an external event, usually I/O". Doing computation was typically referred to as "busy". "Non-blocking" meant "without putting the process to sleep". There seems to be a shift in the meaning of this particular piece of terminology that I find interesting, because it seems to reflect the reality that "computers" actually do very little "computing". Instead computers mainly communicate, and even the CPUs themselves probably spend most of their time waiting on main memory (60ns) rather than doing actual arithmetic (sub ns in most cases).

couchand 11y ago
Just to get a little more specific with this: the shift is in the accepted "main engine of computation" (to make up a mediocre term). We used to have something of an engineer's viewpoint, that the physical location of the electrical operation of the mathematics (i.e., the CPU) was this main engine. It's been a long road, but the new viewpoint is a bit more philosophical: the main engine is the human-computer nexus. Of course, "human" in the above isn't strictly correct, since we know that computers talk to each other all the time, too. Indeed, when that happens the main engine of computation isn't really one or the other of the computers, but the link between them (i.e., the protocol). So now "blocking" means requiring the main engine of computation to "sleep" and wait for "external input". For a human UI this means the classic sense of waiting on the wetware end, but it can just as easily mean waiting on the hardware end. We strive to build responsive systems, so we wish for them to be "non-blocking" in every case. This means, if the human wants to communicate to the computer, it shouldn't be prevented to because the computer is currently working on a solitary operation. Ultimately it's the same principle we've already accepted from the reverse direction.