What is synckit?
The synckit npm package allows for executing asynchronous tasks synchronously using worker threads or child processes. It is designed to offload heavy computation or I/O-bound tasks without blocking the main thread, thus enabling a synchronous-like coding style while maintaining non-blocking behavior.
What are synckit's main functionalities?
Running asynchronous tasks synchronously
This feature allows you to run an asynchronous task inside a worker thread and wait for the result synchronously. The 'worker.js' file should export an async function that will be executed with the provided arguments.
const { runAsWorkerThread } = require('synckit');
const result = runAsWorkerThread('./worker.js', ...args);
Creating a synchronous API from asynchronous functions
With this feature, you can create a synchronous version of an asynchronous function. The 'async-fn.js' file should export an async function that will be executed with the provided arguments, and the result will be returned synchronously.
const { createSyncFn } = require('synckit');
const syncFn = createSyncFn('./async-fn.js');
const result = syncFn(...args);
Other packages similar to synckit
deasync
Deasync turns asynchronous functions into synchronous by blocking the event loop. It is similar to synckit in providing a way to write synchronous-style code, but it does so by pausing the event loop, which can lead to performance issues and is not recommended for production use.
threads
The 'threads' package is used to manage and work with Web Workers and worker threads in Node.js. It offers similar functionality to synckit by allowing asynchronous tasks to be offloaded to separate threads, but it provides a more comprehensive API for managing those threads.
workerpool
Workerpool is a package for managing a pool of workers and running tasks in parallel. It is similar to synckit in that it uses worker threads to execute tasks asynchronously, but it focuses on managing a pool of workers and distributing tasks among them for parallel processing.