Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript

Matthew C. Loring; Mark Marron; Daan Leijen

doi:10.1145/3133841.3133846

Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript

Matthew C. Loring, Mark Marron, Daan Leijen

Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Node.js runtime has become a major platform for developers building cloud, mobile, or IoT applications using JavaScript. Since the JavaScript language is single threaded, Node.js programs must make use of asynchronous callbacks and event loops managed by the runtime to ensure applications remain responsive. While conceptually simple, this programming model contains numerous subtleties and behaviors that are defined implicitly by the current Node.js implementation. This paper presents the first comprehensive formalization of the Node.js asynchronous execution model and defines a high-level notion of async-contexts to formalize fundamental relationships between asynchronous events in an application. These formalizations provide a foundation for the construction of static or dynamic program analysis tools, support the exploration of alternative Node.js event loop implementations, and provide a high-level conceptual framework for reasoning about relationships between the execution of asynchronous callbacks in a Node.js application.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017
Editors	Davide Ancona
Pages	51-62
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450355261
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3133841.3133846
State	Published - Oct 24 2017
Event	13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, DLS 2017 - Vancouver, Canada Duration: Oct 24 2017 → …

Publication series

Name	DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017

Conference

Conference	13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, DLS 2017
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Vancouver
Period	10/24/17 → …

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Keywords

Asynchrony
JavaScript

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Science Applications
Computational Theory and Mathematics
Computer Networks and Communications
Software

Access to Document

10.1145/3133841.3133846

Cite this

Loring, M. C., Marron, M., & Leijen, D. (2017). Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript. In D. Ancona (Ed.), DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017 (pp. 51-62). (DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3133841.3133846

Loring, Matthew C. ; Marron, Mark ; Leijen, Daan. / Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript. DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017. editor / Davide Ancona. 2017. pp. 51-62 (DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017).

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title = "Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript",

abstract = "The Node.js runtime has become a major platform for developers building cloud, mobile, or IoT applications using JavaScript. Since the JavaScript language is single threaded, Node.js programs must make use of asynchronous callbacks and event loops managed by the runtime to ensure applications remain responsive. While conceptually simple, this programming model contains numerous subtleties and behaviors that are defined implicitly by the current Node.js implementation. This paper presents the first comprehensive formalization of the Node.js asynchronous execution model and defines a high-level notion of async-contexts to formalize fundamental relationships between asynchronous events in an application. These formalizations provide a foundation for the construction of static or dynamic program analysis tools, support the exploration of alternative Node.js event loop implementations, and provide a high-level conceptual framework for reasoning about relationships between the execution of asynchronous callbacks in a Node.js application.",

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Loring, MC, Marron, M & Leijen, D 2017, Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript. in D Ancona (ed.), DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017. DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017, pp. 51-62, 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, DLS 2017, Vancouver, Canada, 10/24/17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3133841.3133846

Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript. / Loring, Matthew C.; Marron, Mark; Leijen, Daan.
DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017. ed. / Davide Ancona. 2017. p. 51-62 (DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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Loring MC, Marron M, Leijen D. Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript. In Ancona D, editor, DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017. 2017. p. 51-62. (DLS 2017 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on Dynamic Languages, co-located with SPLASH 2017). doi: 10.1145/3133841.3133846

Semantics of asynchronous JavaScript

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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