Blocking vs non-blocking with node.js

Migrated from my original blog to this new one.

In the tutorial I am working on https://github.com/workshopper/learnyounode the first file read you do is synchronous.

syn·chro·nous

adjective

1. existing or occurring at the same time.

Not sure what anyone else would think. But that sounds like non-blocking to me. Really excited about setting up this non-blocking command I opened my downloaded codeschool slides and started playing around. My code looked great and my test!? well.. it failed. wait… failed. what?! how?

Well it turns out, synchronous in the programming world means blocking which means, one by one down the list. Processing stops while reading is happening.

Asynchronous though,

a·syn·chro·nous

adjective

3. (of two or more objects or events) not existing or happening at the same time.

means non-blocking. Which also means while reading is happening processing can continue.

Total noobie mistake however I understand it now and finished the tutorials no problem. Good thing learning from your mistakes is the best way, I should be an expert in no time. Just thought this was a funny issue and I dont blog nearly enough so there it is.

For some added fun when I stated my argument with my buddy Ari his response was a video just to torture me a little more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mD2hsxrhQ

Tags: tiy ironYard javascript learning codecamp learnyounode node