16
Why is crypto.subtle.digest async? (programming.dev)
submitted 4 weeks ago by firelizzard@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Why is crypto.subtle.digest designed to return a promise?

Every other system I've ever worked with has the signature hash(bytes) => bytes, yet whatever committee designed the Subtle Crypto API decided that the browser version should return a promise. Why? I've looked around but I've never found any discussion on the motivation behind that.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] TehPers@beehaw.org 3 points 4 weeks ago

To add - blocking the main thread on a long running task in the browser can make the page unresponsive. There's not really a way, as far as I know, to "block until a promise completes", which might be the source of the frustration. It seems to me that was intentional by the ones who designed this function.

this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
16 points (78.6% liked)

Programming

16210 readers
170 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Rules

  • Follow the programming.dev instance rules
  • Keep content related to programming in some way
  • If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
snowe@programming.dev
Ategon@programming.dev
MaungaHikoi@lemmy.nz