Asynchronously running C++ and JS code in V8 - javascript

I'm currently experimenting with embedding V8 in a project of mine. Since I use libev for listening to sockets and events and want to be able to script events with JS I would want to be able to just run v8 for a short while and then jump back to C++ to check for events and such and then go back to running JS-code. Since I haven't done much script embedding earlier I'm sure there are some clever way that this usually is done in so all ideas are appreciated.

The cleanest way I found of doing this is to create setTimeout and clearTimeout functions within JS. setTimeout creates a ev::Timer which has a callback that gets called after a certain amount of time. This makes it so that when you call a JS function you continue to execute that until it returns, but that function can set a number of timeouts which aren't called until after you exit the current JS and there hasn't happened any other libev events during the execution, in that case those are handled first (in C++). The limitations of this method is that the coder who writes JS has to remember to not write functions that goes into eternal while-loops or similar. A loop is instead done like this:
function repeat() { setTimeout(repeat, 0); }

Related

Nodejs setInterval to repeat a task every 30s

I built a nodejs application that should execute several tasks.
My app.js has a function call to the manager module which controls those tasks.
I want to call that function from my app.js and perform those tasks every 30s.
something like:
setInterval(manager.tasks(), 30000);
My question is that if using setInterval could give me any performance problems (slowing down the computer, blocking resources or any other reason)
Is there a more efficient way to do this or is setInterval ok?
it depends on how heavy the work/processing you want to do is, setInterval is async so your code will only be run once every 30 seconds, but at the same time JavaScript is single-threaded, so if you're doing a lot of work in your task, the one time it runs in 30 seconds it may take too long to execute thus blocking resources.
In most cases you should be fine using setInterval, but if you really want to emulate multi-threading or if you're doing too much work in your task, you may want to spawn another child process https://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html process or use the new Worker Threads API https://nodejs.org/api/worker_threads.html instead, but keep in mind its not as simple to implement as a setInterval call
Use node-cron or node-schedule instead
setInterval is implemented in standard node js, you won't have any performance / blocking problems, most libraries also use setInterval
It completely depends on the function you executing inside setInterval. If it is I/O bound operation then you don't need to worry too much because libuv will handle itself But if it is CPU bound then I will suggest you to use child_process api to fork a new child process and do your stuff in to that.

Running setTimeout() or setInterval() asynchronously

Is it possible to execute setTimeout() or setInterval() synchronously so that further execution that depends on its callback will not cause a not defined error?
intv = window.setInterval(function() {
// do some stuff
doSomeStuff();
// kill interval when stuff is done
if (stuffIsDone)
window.clearInterval(intv);
}, 10);
// dependent on "stuff" being done
// I want this to execute only after intv is cleared
doMoreStuff();
I don't want to put every consecutive call inside of a timeout to check if (typeof someStuff != 'undefined')
Yes, I do understand that this will cause a delay in loading and possible the UI. The intervals will be extremely small and inconsequential.
EDIT... Alright, what I'm ultimately trying to do is dynamically add a number of javascript files dynamically, by only including a single javascript file.
ie.:
// auto include all javascript files
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="include.js"></script>
This works by requesting the JSON list of javascript files from the server via AJAX. It loops through the list and adds the scripts dynamically to the DOM.
The catch:
If I add the scripts using setInterval, they are sometimes added after the onLoad event fires, depending on the current computational load of the machine executing the code. So, when I call functions from one of the files onLoad, it causes an error (because at the time of execution, the function didn't exist)
If I add the scripts inside of a while loop, the dynamically added scripts to do not execute and the internal references between the scripts are invalid and error out.
So, the question really is: without using setInterval and typeof on every call, how do I dynamically add scripts reliably so that dependent code doesn't attempt to execute before the depended-upon scripts are loaded?
Take a look at Refactoring setInterval-based Polling and consider converting your setInterval to a setTimeout and use a Promise to execute doMoreStuff() after stuffIsDone is true.
That article is from 2013, so consider Promises/A+ (using a polyfill for ES6-style Promises for older browsers) instead of jQuery's or Underscore's implementation.
You can run a while loop and keep track of the system time if you want to block the JavaScript thread for a fixed period of time.
For example:
var startMillis = Date.now();
while (Date.now() - startMillis < 10);
Note that no other code will run during this period. JavaScript is single threaded.
Don't know exactly what you're trying to do, but this seems a little strange :)

How to fix firefox stop javascript when not responding

I'm currently create a javascript that run a loop forever. However, after a few hours my script stop working, it asks me to continue or stop script. Is there anyway to fix this or use some automation tools to restart firefox and run the javascript again. Because most of time I away from keyboard
id strongly recommend not using any kind of infinite loop - doing so would be just asking for trouble. instead you want to look into using javascript's setTimeout() and/or setInterval() functions... allowing you to specify a block of code to run every X milliseconds
you can find the docs here
setTimeout()
setInterval()
To prevent the long running javascript prompt, you need to occasionally let javascript process other events. The classic way to do this is like this is using setTimeout().
function doNextChunkOfWork() {
// do some work here
if (moreWorkToDo) {
setTimeout(doNextChunkofWork, 1);
}
}
Using the setTimeout() lets the javascript engine get back to its event queue and process other events and thus prevents the long running script warning.
If you explained what you're really trying to do, we might be able to suggest even better options. If you're doing some sort of infinite loop, javascript in a browser is meant to be an event-driven environment where the usual mechanism is to create event handlers and let events trigger code to run. It is not meant for infinite loops polling for something.

Javascript basic execution order

I know PHP, server-side scripts, run first and output the html to the browser, then javascript is executed. However, I am trying to get a feel for how the javascript is executed and can't quite figure it out.
Is Javascript executed top-down and is consistent with this top-down execution? I am dynamically creating javascript in PHP which is triggered by events in my webpage's original javascript.
Will created JS execute exactly where I put it or will it fire before? after?
Thanks
Well javascript will execute one line after the another. But also javascript is the event based language hence there will be certain part of the code which will be based on events and will execute only when the events take place.
For eg: click,hover etc events
or functions like setTimeout and setInterval
these function will execute only when the particular events takes place
JavaScript is executed by the clients browser and is parsed in conjunction with the HTML and CSS, whichever comes first.
Is Javascript executed top-down and is consistent with this top-down execution?
Yes
Will created JS execute exactly where I put it or will it fire before? after?
JavaScript inserted into the DOM will be parsed/executed immediately.
Javascript is read and run by the user's web browser whereas PHP is run server-side. The PHP code is compiled, HTML (with Javascript) is served, the user's browser reads the HTML and Javascript.
Is Javascript executed top-down and is consistent with this top-down execution?
Yes
With a lesser-known exception:
Function statements will be executed before any other statements (but not function operators).
So this would run fine:
f();
function f() { console.log("a"); }

Are Mutexes needed in javascript?

I have seen this link: Implementing Mutual Exclusion in JavaScript.
On the other hand, I have read that there are no threads in javascript, but what exactly does that mean?
When events occur, where in the code can they interrupt?
And if there are no threads in JS, do I need to use mutexes in JS or not?
Specifically, I am wondering about the effects of using functions called by setTimeout() and XmlHttpRequest's onreadystatechange on globally accessible variables.
Javascript is defined as a reentrant language which means there is no threading exposed to the user, there may be threads in the implementation. Functions like setTimeout() and asynchronous callbacks need to wait for the script engine to sleep before they're able to run.
That means that everything that happens in an event must be finished before the next event will be processed.
That being said, you may need a mutex if your code does something where it expects a value not to change between when the asynchronous event was fired and when the callback was called.
For example if you have a data structure where you click one button and it sends an XmlHttpRequest which calls a callback the changes the data structure in a destructive way, and you have another button that changes the same data structure directly, between when the event was fired and when the call back was executed the user could have clicked and updated the data structure before the callback which could then lose the value.
While you could create a race condition like that it's very easy to prevent that in your code since each function will be atomic. It would be a lot of work and take some odd coding patterns to create the race condition in fact.
The answers to this question are a bit outdated though correct at the time they were given. And still correct if looking at a client-side javascript application that does NOT use webworkers.
Articles on web-workers:
multithreading in javascript using webworkers
Mozilla on webworkers
This clearly shows that javascript via web-workers has multithreading capabilities. As concerning to the question are mutexes needed in javascript? I am unsure of this. But this stackoverflow post seems relevant:
Mutual Exclusion for N Asynchronous Threads
Yes, mutexes can be required in Javascript when accessing resources that are shared between tabs/windows, like localStorage.
For example, if a user has two tabs open, simple code like the following is unsafe:
function appendToList(item) {
var list = localStorage["myKey"];
if (list) {
list += "," + item;
}
else {
list = item;
}
localStorage["myKey"] = list;
}
Between the time that the localStorage item is 'got' and 'set', another tab could have modified the value. It's generally unlikely, but possible - you'd need to judge for yourself the likelihood and risk associated with any contention in your particular circumstances.
See the following articles for a more detail:
Wait, Don't Touch That: Mutual Exclusion Locks & JavaScript - Medium Engineering
JavaScript concurrency and locking the HTML5 localStorage - Benjamin Dumke-von der Eh, Stackoverflow
As #william points out,
you may need a mutex if your code does something where it expects a
value not to change between when the asynchronous event was fired and
when the callback was called.
This can be generalised further - if your code does something where it expects exclusive control of a resource until an asynchronous request resolves, you may need a mutex.
A simple example is where you have a button that fires an ajax call to create a record in the back end. You might need a bit of code to protect you from trigger happy users clicking away and thereby creating multiple records. there are a number of approaches to this problem (e.g. disable the button, enable on ajax success). You could also use a simple lock:
var save_lock = false;
$('#save_button').click(function(){
if(!save_lock){
//lock
save_lock=true;
$.ajax({
success:function()
//unlock
save_lock = false;
}
});
}
}
I'm not sure if that's the best approach and I would be interested to see how others handle mutual exclusion in javascript, but as far as i'm aware that's a simple mutex and it is handy.
JavaScript is single threaded... though Chrome may be a new beast (I think it is also single threaded, but each tab has it's own JavaScript thread... I haven't looked into it in detail, so don't quote me there).
However, one thing you DO need to worry about is how your JavaScript will handle multiple ajax requests coming back in not the same order you send them. So, all you really need to worry about is make sure your ajax calls are handled in a way that they won't step on eachother's feet if the results come back in a different order than you sent them.
This goes for timeouts too...
When JavaScript grows multithreading, then maybe worry about mutexes and the like....
JavaScript, the language, can be as multithreaded as you want, but browser embeddings of the javascript engine only runs one callback (onload, onfocus, <script>, etc...) at a time (per tab, presumably). William's suggestion of using a Mutex for changes between registering and receiving a callback should not be taken too literally because of this, as you wouldn't want to block in the intervening callback since the callback that will unlock it will be blocked behind the current callback! (Wow, English sucks for talking about threading.) In this case, you probably want to do something along the lines of redispatching the current event if a flag is set, either literally or with the likes of setTimeout().
If you are using a different embedding of JS, and that executes multiple threads at once, it can get a bit more dicey, but due to the way JS can use callbacks so easily and locks objects on property access explicit locking is not nearly as necessary. However, I would be surprised if an embedding designed for general code (eg, game scripting) that used multi threading didn't also give some explicit locking primitives as well.
Sorry for the wall of text!
Events are signaled, but JavaScript execution is still single-threaded.
My understanding is that when event is signaled the engine stops what it is executing at the moment to run event handler. After the handler is finished, script execution is resumed. If event handler changed some shared variables then resumed code will see these changes appearing "out of the blue".
If you want to "protect" shared data, simple boolean flag should be sufficient.

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