How to use multiple threads in Javascript

Question

I was wondering how can I start, join and detach threads in JS.

I saw information about Service Workers, which are meant to run as separate processes in the background, not exactly what I'm looking for. Is there something else? How can I use it?

JavaScript (in the common engines) is single threaded. So if you need to distribute tasks among different CPUs then you need to use workers or child processes. — t.niese
– t.niese, Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 10:54
@t.niese - No, JavaScript isn't single-threaded. Most environments run a single thread per global environment (sometimes sharing that thread across more than one global environment), which is different from the language being single-threaded. — T.J. Crowder
– T.J. Crowder, Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 10:55
@Archer I think possibility of serial up voting? +1 on your comment — Ayaz Ali Shah
– Ayaz Ali Shah, Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 11:00
Maybe this helps explaining the event loop. Some methods like fetch will run asynchronously in their own thread and return a promise. — HMR
– HMR, Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 11:31

T.J. Crowder · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-22 10:57:33Z

1

You probably don't want service workers, but rather web workers (spec | MDN article) on browsers or worker threads on Node.js.

answered Oct 22, 2018 at 10:57

T.J. Crowder

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user7182166 Over a year ago

I will look into it, probably was on the wrong path, thanks

Gatsbimantico · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-22 11:15:02Z

0

JavaScript in the main window runs on a single thread, it can run asynchronous functions that will turn to progress in the same thread. See:

JS Concurrency model: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/EventLoop
JS Async function: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/async_function

This two APIs will allow you to run different threads:

Web Workers https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API (run and die kind of script thread execution) example:

var myWorker = new Worker('worker.js');
myWorker.postMessage('Message posted to worker');

Service Workers https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Service_Worker_API (run in the background between the network and the application)

edited Oct 22, 2018 at 11:15

answered Oct 22, 2018 at 11:01

Gatsbimantico

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