Why choose async/await over threads? (notgull.net)

Article summary

The article discusses the choice between async/await and threads in programming, specifically in the context of Rust. It argues that async/await offers benefits such as composability and ease of use, particularly when dealing with I/O-bound operations. The article also touches on the idea that the benefits of async/await are not widely understood, leading to misconceptions about its advantages over threads. The author provides examples of how async/await can be used to solve problems in a more elegant way than threads.

Main themes

• Async/await vs threads
• Concurrency models
• Rust programming
• Performance optimization
• Concurrency abstraction

What commenters say

• Fibers are a viable alternative to async/await and offer similar benefits, but with different trade-offs.
• Async/await is more suitable for ultra-low-latency software due to its ability to minimize dynamic memory allocation.
• The choice between async/await and fibers depends on the specific use case and requirements of the project.
• Fibers can be more difficult to work with when interacting with code in another language with a different ABI.
• Async/await is not inherently better than threads, and the choice between them should be based on the specific needs of the project.
• The benefits of async/await, such as composability and ease of use, make it a better choice for many use cases.
• The performance benefits of async/await are not always significant, and other factors such as code readability and maintainability should be considered.
• Fibers can be used to achieve similar performance benefits to async/await, but with more control over the concurrency model.