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•1y ago

Comments

Neywiny•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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";
  }

CODA: Rewriting Transformer Blocks as GEMM-Epilogue Programs

https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.19269
42•matt_d•2h ago•3 comments

Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart

https://valhovey.github.io/gaia-mary/
821•speleo•15h ago•181 comments

Slumber a TUI HTTP Client

https://slumber.lucaspickering.me
44•jicea•3h ago•15 comments

The surprising story behind the first British person in space

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260518-helen-sharman-the-story-behind-the-first-british-per...
35•xoxxala•1d ago•1 comments

Cleve Moler has died

https://www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/founders/clevemoler.html
60•mychele•4h ago•4 comments

Blog ran on Ubuntu 16.04 for 10 years. I migrated it to FreeBSD

https://crocidb.com/post/this-blog-ran-on-ubuntu-16-04-for-10-years-i-migrated-it-to-freebsd/
257•speckx•12h ago•136 comments

Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

https://rosmine.ai/2026/05/13/was-my-48k-gpu-worth-it/
411•apwheele•3d ago•299 comments

The memory shortage is causing a repricing of consumer electronics

https://davidoks.blog/p/ai-is-killing-the-cheap-smartphone
145•d0ks•9h ago•148 comments

Uv is fantastic, but its package management UX is a mess

https://www.loopwerk.io/articles/2026/uv-ux-mess/
177•nchagnet•10h ago•96 comments

Using Kagi Search with Low Vision

https://veroniiiica.com/using-kagi-search-with-low-vision/
184•speckx•11h ago•54 comments

The death of the brick and mortar toy store

https://brainbaking.com/post/2026/05/the-death-of-the-brick-and-mortar-toy-store/
69•speckx•2d ago•61 comments

Indexing a year of video locally on a 2021 MacBook with Gemma4-31B (50GB swap)

https://blog.simbastack.com/indexed-a-year-of-video-locally/
364•asenna•17h ago•106 comments

Mycorrhizal Fungi, Nature's Key to Plant Survival and Success

https://pacifichorticulture.org/articles/mycorrhizal-fungi-natures-key-to-plant-survival-and-succ...
83•mooreds•1d ago•12 comments

Show HN: Freenet, a peer-to-peer platform for decentralized apps

https://freenet.org/
268•sanity•16h ago•163 comments

Tristan Davey's Punch Card Archive

https://punchcards.tristandavey.com/
25•ohjeez•2d ago•4 comments

Python 3.15: features that didn't make the headlines

https://blog.changs.co.uk/python-315-features-that-didnt-make-the-headlines.html
365•rbanffy•20h ago•178 comments

The Hardware Lottery

https://hardwarelottery.github.io/
11•intelkishan•1d ago•2 comments

Lost Images from the 1945 Trinity Nuclear Test Restored

https://spectrum.ieee.org/trinity-nuclear-test
337•pseudolus•20h ago•101 comments

Flipper One – we need your help

https://blog.flipper.net/flipper-one-we-need-your-help/
1123•sandebert•20h ago•439 comments

Deciphering the Hashihara Castle Town Map

https://www.obayashi.co.jp/en/kikan_obayashi/detail/kikan_64_project.html
41•1970-01-01•2d ago•0 comments

Launch HN: Runtime (YC P26) – Sandboxed coding agents for everyone on a team

https://www.runtm.com/
83•gustrigos•15h ago•22 comments

Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-industry-news/spotify-will-start-reserving-concert-...
138•elffjs•15h ago•282 comments

Multi-Stream LLMs: new paper on parallelizing/separating prompts, thinking, I/O

https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12460
100•atomicthumbs•11h ago•11 comments

Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/21/waymo-pauses-atlanta-service-as-its-robotaxis-keep-driving-into...
300•mattas•15h ago•373 comments

Show HN: KVBoost – chunk-level KV cache reuse for HuggingFace, 5–48x faster TTFT

https://pythongiant.github.io/KVBoost/
18•pythongiant•2h ago•11 comments

Throwing AI-generated walls of text into conversations

https://noslopgrenade.com/
578•napolux•22h ago•344 comments

Seattle Shield, an intelligence-sharing network operated by the Seattle police

https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/
452•root-parent•13h ago•183 comments

Google's Antigravity bait and switch

https://www.0xsid.com/blog/antigravity-bait-n-switch
650•ssiddharth•17h ago•296 comments

News outlets are limiting the Internet Archive’s access to their journalism

https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/05/more-than-340-local-news-outlets-are-limiting-the-internet-arch...
266•jaredwiener•14h ago•92 comments

We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-marketing-live-search-ads/
597•sofumel•21h ago•532 comments