frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

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();
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";
  }
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.

Beam: Reflection's 501B open-weight model

https://reflection.ai/blog/introducing-beam
449•Philpax•14h ago•143 comments

Protect Your Friends and Loved Ones

https://ephemeral.cx/2026/07/protect-your-friends-and-loved-ones/
32•speckx•2d ago•8 comments

Accountability mechanisms can be joyful (2024)

https://liquidbrain.net/blog/accountability-and-joy/
33•luu•2d ago•9 comments

Find the flattest route between any two points in SF

https://flattensf.com/
200•ishan0102•11h ago•70 comments

Dust: Pretraining Transformers Without Backpropagation

https://qlabs.sh/research/dust
187•E-Reverance•12h ago•44 comments

Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend

https://dbushell.com/2026/10/03/deno-to-node/
166•ibobev•11h ago•92 comments

Opus 5.5 agents discover two room-temperature magnetic semiconductor candidates

https://www.vals.ai/blogs/room-temperature-magnetic-semiconductors
352•outlier99•12h ago•232 comments

Web Search API

https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-10-02-introducing-web-search-api/
545•tosh•22h ago•248 comments

Resurrecting iChat Audio and Video Conferencing

https://blog.pipetogrep.org/2026/09/11/resurrecting-ichat-audio-and-video-conferencing/
48•thepipetogrep•5h ago•12 comments

Example.com just launched the biggest redesign in decades

https://www.debugbear.com/blog/example-dot-com-redesign-history
222•jgx0•10h ago•141 comments

An algorithmic failure beneath the secret ballot

https://blog.citp.princeton.edu/2026/08/03/an-algorithmic-failure-beneath-the-secret-ballot/
79•leecoursey•2d ago•47 comments

Testing 12 different Zigbee temperature/humidity sensors

https://smarthomescene.com/reviews/best-selling-zigbee-temperature-sensors-tested/
112•walrus01•2d ago•49 comments

Competitive Programmer's Handbook (2018) [pdf]

https://cses.fi/book/book.pdf
200•vinhnx•2d ago•47 comments

Why Common Lisp is now the best programming language

https://www.vivienhenz.com/common-lisp
159•misterchocolat•6h ago•218 comments

The complement of true is true, except when it's false

https://dryperspective.github.io/posts/complement-of-true/
11•aw1621107•1d ago•1 comments

Global Solar Atlas: summary of solar power potential globally

https://globalsolaratlas.info/
52•stratts•10h ago•35 comments

ChatGPT is adding real cartoonists' signatures to fake New Yorker cartoons

https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/chatgpt-is-adding-real-cartoonists-signatures-to-fake-new-yorke...
431•rdmuser•10h ago•310 comments

Using A.I. and machine learning to decode communication of sperm whales

https://blue-continuum.com/the-man-who-listens-to-whales
22•dnetesn•1d ago•6 comments

Show HN: Photoc – Command-line tools for photographers

https://github.com/ahmetomerv/photoc
34•ahmetomer•2d ago•5 comments

Show HN: Entombed in a Raycaster

https://www.stelabouras.com/blog/entombed-raycaster/
23•stelabouras•2d ago•5 comments

The lamps in my house

https://arslan.io/2026/10/05/the-lamps-in-my-house/
202•farslan•19h ago•89 comments

Ephemeral Testing

https://lemire.me/blog/2026/10/05/ephemeral-testing/
56•ibobev•10h ago•19 comments

DEDA – Tracking Dots Extraction, Decoding and Anonymisation Toolkit

https://github.com/dfd-tud/deda
63•greyface-•1d ago•6 comments

Samon: Designing a Zen Garden Raking Puzzle

https://gwern.net/doc/design/2026-10-03-gwern-samon.html
42•networked•9h ago•20 comments

Apple and a hacker's future

https://stratechery.com/2026/apple-and-a-hackers-future/
257•maguay•23h ago•217 comments

Making a GTK application in Haskell, part 1

https://floreal.tech/blog/2026/making-a-gtk-app-in-haskell-part-1/
156•Vosporos•19h ago•41 comments

Qualcomm licenses patents on Huawei’s LogicFolding chip tech

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-05/qualcomm-licenses-patents-on-huawei-s-logicfol...
190•0xedb•1d ago•125 comments

The first fully implanted cochlear implant reaches patients

https://spectrum.ieee.org/fully-implantable-cochlear-implant
90•rbanffy•4d ago•71 comments

Anthropic reported diary entry to police, woman faces felony charge

https://www.techspot.com/news/114091-florida-woman-used-claude-diary-anthropic-reported-shoot.html
726•emptybits•1d ago•564 comments

Linux containers in 500 lines of code (2016)

https://blog.lizzie.io/linux-containers-in-500-loc.html
125•mkornaukhov•19h ago•32 comments