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.

  • macniel@feddit.de
    7·
    7 months ago

    Given the nature of JS running only on a single thread. Promises/asynchronity is the only way to keep the browser from locking up.

    Thus insisting on any other way is a major flaw in the developer not the language.