frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Understanding Java's Asynchronous Journey

https://amritpandey.io/understanding-javas-asynchronous-journey/
17•hardasspunk•10mo ago

Comments

Neywiny•10mo ago
I don't get it. The first example in JS vs Java looks very similar. Now all those other code blocks, they certainly have more going on but idk how that compares to JS. And to answer the questions:

A completable future is something that in the future may complete. I think that's self explanatory. A promise seems equally vague.

Boilerplate looks the same. JS is just a function, Java they put a class around it. Java requires exception handling which is annoying but having fought errors in async JS, I'll take all I can get.

API is eh. Sure. But that's not even shown in this example so I have no idea.

So JS saves like 3 lines? Is that really so much better?

cogman10•10mo ago
> A completable future is something that in the future may complete. I think that's self explanatory.

But not the reason for the name :).

It's called "completable" because these futures have a method on them `future.complete("value")`. Before their introduction, there was a `Future` API that java had.

nogridbag•10mo ago
Yeah that first example is rather poor. And it uses the word boilerpate to seemingly refer to the stuff unrelated to the async code (class declaration, exception handling, main method).

I don't use Java async much, but I guess if you have a utility method named "setTimeout" than the example can simply be:

    public CompletableFuture<String> fetchData() {
        return setTimeout(() -> "Data Fetched", 10000);
    }

    public void loadData() {
        fetchData().thenAccept(System.out::println);
    }
Which is simpler or equivalent to the JS example.
stevoski•10mo ago
The Java 1 example uses lambdas, which were introduced in Java 8.

It’s probably intentional, because it allows showing the Java 1 Thread approach succinctly.

But as long-term Java person, I find it jarring.

philipwhiuk•10mo ago
Java's had `var` since Java 10 but apparently the author deliberately ignored that to make the example as wordy as possible.

It's a little tiring to read a Java example with an entry-point (the public-static-void bit) and then a JavaScript example without one.

If you strip that out the original Java is:

  var future = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> {
        try {
                Thread.sleep(10000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            return "Data Fetched";
        });
  future.thenAccept(result -> System.out.println(result));
  System.out.println("Prints first"); // prints before the async result
which is only obtuse due to checked exceptions.

Arguably it's still a different thing you're doing, because it's not scheduling a task on a pool, it's creating a thread which sleeps for 10 seconds.

elric•10mo ago
`var` is very unhelpful in situations where the reader might not be entirely familiar with the context, especially when using factory methods.

I don't think the author was trying to make the example "wordy" so much as "clear".

cogman10•10mo ago
Also, arguably, the wrong way to do something like this.

The author uses `setTimeout` for javascript. The equivalent for Java is either the `Timer` class or a `ScheduledExecutorService`. Doing a `Thread.sleep` simply isn't how you should approach this.

With that in mind, if you want to use both these things and keep the completable future interface you'd have to do soemthing like this.

    ScheduledExecutorService scheduler = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1);
    var future = new CompletableFuture<String>();
    scheduler.schedule(()->future.complete("Data Fetched"), 10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
    future.thenAccept(result -> System.out.println(result));
    System.out.println("Prints first"); // prints before the async result
    scheduler.shutdown();
wpollock•10mo ago
In Java 24, new features support educational and demonstration use. You don't need a class to wrap your main method, which also has a simpler signature. To compare JavaScript with Java examples, one should make use of these features.

While the examples may need some work, I enjoyed this post, it nicely shows the evolution of Java concurrency.

AtlasBarfed•10mo ago
Does no.js still limit you to a single core/CPU use?

Or as a node successfully been able to start utilizing more cores underneath its JavaScript single thread model. It presents the programmer?

I just remember early node.js from like 15 years ago and the single background task limitation of JavaScript running in a web page.

Cuz you got async code is nice, but what you really wanted to be able to harness in modern CPUs is multi-core

That said, I've been looking for an article like this for a while, although I think there are other associated libraries that also had steps in here. I do think the jvm adopted a lot of those, but I'm not sure if they actually are better than the original extension libraries.

msgilligan•10mo ago
I simplified the first example to:

  void main() {
      CompletableFuture<String> future = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(this::asyncMethod);
      future.thenAccept(result -> IO.println(result));
      IO.println("Prints first");             // prints before the async result
      future.join();                          // Wait for future to complete
  }

  String asyncMethod() {
      try {
          Thread.sleep(10000);
      } catch (InterruptedException e) {
          return "Interrupted";
      }
      return "Data Fetched";
  }
I made the following changes:

1. Move the asynchronous function called in the CompletableFuture to its own method

2. Use Java 25 "instance main method" (see JEP 25: https://openjdk.org/jeps/512)

3. Use Java 25 IO.println() to simplify console output

4. Instead of throwing a fatal exception on interruption, return "Interrupted" immediately.

5. Use future.join() so the main method waits for the future to complete and the "Data fetched" output is printed.

This program can be run directly from source with `java Example.java`. (If you're using Java 24 or a version of Java 25 prior to EA 22, you need to use `java --enable-preview Example.java`)

Here is a modified version of the example that interrupts the thread:

  void main() {
      ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
      CompletableFuture<String> future = CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(this::asyncMethod, executor);
      future.thenAccept(result -> IO.println(result));
      IO.println("Prints first");             // prints before the async result
      executor.shutdownNow();
      future.join();                          // Wait for future to complete
  }

  String asyncMethod() {
      try {
          Thread.sleep(10000);
      } catch (InterruptedException e) {
          return "Interrrupted";
      }
      return "Data Fetched";
  }

Live: Artemis II Launch Day Updates

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/
905•apitman•15h ago•773 comments

Bringing Clojure programming to Enterprise (2021)

https://blogit.michelin.io/clojure-programming/
10•smartmic•35m ago•1 comments

Email obfuscation: What works in 2026?

https://spencermortensen.com/articles/email-obfuscation/
96•jaden•5h ago•23 comments

Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-On-Linux-Tops-5p
321•hkmaxpro•5h ago•134 comments

Quantum computing bombshells that are not April Fools

https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9665
153•Strilanc•8h ago•49 comments

EmDash – A spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security

https://blog.cloudflare.com/emdash-wordpress/
557•elithrar•16h ago•402 comments

A new C++ back end for ocamlc

https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/pull/14701
172•glittershark•9h ago•14 comments

Should AI have the right to say 'No' to its owner?

https://github.com/Jang-woo-AnnaSoft/execution-boundaries
4•Jang-woo•33m ago•2 comments

Telli (YC F24) is hiring engineers, designers, and more [on-site, Berlin]

http://hi.telli.com/join-us
1•sebselassie•1h ago

Mercor says it was hit by cyberattack tied to compromise LiteLLM

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/31/mercor-says-it-was-hit-by-cyberattack-tied-to-compromise-of-ope...
31•jackson-mcd•1d ago•9 comments

AI Perfected Chess. Humans Made It Unpredictable Again

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-27/ai-changed-chess-grandmasters-now-win-with-unp...
30•GMoromisato•4d ago•22 comments

DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/dram-pricing-is-killing-the-hobbyist-sbc-market/
461•ingve•11h ago•391 comments

Fast and Gorgeous Erosion Filter

https://blog.runevision.com/2026/03/fast-and-gorgeous-erosion-filter.html
149•runevision•2d ago•14 comments

Show HN: Git bayesect – Bayesian Git bisection for non-deterministic bugs

https://github.com/hauntsaninja/git_bayesect
272•hauntsaninja•4d ago•40 comments

Show HN: NASA Artemis II Mission Timeline Tracker

https://www.sunnywingsvirtual.com/artemis2/timeline.html
44•AustinDev•5h ago•7 comments

AI for American-produced cement and concrete

https://engineering.fb.com/2026/03/30/data-center-engineering/ai-for-american-produced-cement-and...
189•latchkey•15h ago•111 comments

What Gödel Discovered (2020)

https://stopa.io/post/269
44•qnleigh•2d ago•7 comments

Subscription bombing and how to mitigate it

https://bytemash.net/posts/subscription-bombing-your-signup-form-is-a-weapon/
132•homelessdino•4h ago•99 comments

The future of code search is not regex – 100x faster than ripgrep

https://fff.dmtrkovalenko.dev/
46•neogoose•5h ago•26 comments

Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2026)

236•whoishiring•17h ago•199 comments

Signing data structures the wrong way

https://blog.foks.pub/posts/domain-separation-in-idl/
102•malgorithms•13h ago•44 comments

Built a cheap DIY fan controller because my motherboard never had working PWM

https://www.himthe.dev/blog/msi-forgot-my-fans
8•bobsterlobster•2d ago•3 comments

Show HN: Dull – Instagram Without Reels, YouTube Without Shorts (iOS)

https://getdull.app
79•kasparnoor•11h ago•64 comments

The Windows equivalents of the most used Linux commands

http://techkettle.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-windows-equivalents-of-most-used.html
55•elsadek•10h ago•40 comments

Weather.com/Retro

https://weather.com/retro/
172•typeofhuman•7h ago•28 comments

The revenge of the data scientist

https://hamel.dev/blog/posts/revenge/
139•hamelsmu•4d ago•27 comments

Reverse Engineering Crazy Taxi, Part 2

https://wretched.computer/post/crazytaxi2
32•wgreenberg•2d ago•2 comments

Trinity Large Thinking

https://openrouter.ai/arcee-ai/trinity-large-thinking
35•kristianp•6h ago•14 comments

The Claude Code Leak

https://build.ms/2026/4/1/the-claude-code-leak/
142•mergesort•6h ago•120 comments

SpaceX files to go public

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/technology/spacex-ipo-elon-musk.html
304•nutjob2•15h ago•401 comments