<commit_before>+++
published_at = 2019-11-23T02:31:54Z
title = "Async, Awaited"
+++

![Seagrape](/assets/images/nanoglyphs/004-async-awaited/seagrape@2x.jpg)

The folding keyboard [from last week's](/nanoglyphs/003-12-factors) been scrapped, but I'm still writing on mobile platforms; this week from a less-exotic-but-more-expensive Apple Magic Keyboard. These weren't designed with mobility in mind, but are surprisingly good at it: compact, good battery life, no butterfly keys. Their Achilles' heel is that they need to be stored in a Ziplock bag lest their veneer of purest white become a muddied black faster than you say "One Infinite Loop".

---

This is Nanoglyph, a software weekly, issue four. It's an in-progress experiment in disciplined writing, email-based publishing, and independent communication less prone to the heavy gravity wells of social media. I’m not slinging it widely, but if you want to help with the prototype, you can [subscribe here](https://nanoglyph-signup.herokuapp.com).

Today’s photo is from a recent dive trip to Honduras. More on that in soon-to-come edition of [_Passages & Glass_](/newsletter) (my other, less software oriented, much less frequent newsletter) if you’re interested in hearing more.

---

## The beginning, at last (#beginning)

Last week, async-await stabilized in Rust. It was a long road to get there. It started early exploration into a variety of concurrency models, including Go-like green threads that were deliberated out in preference of an ultra-minimal runtime. Then came a terrible misadventure in using macros to build async-await as user-space abstractions. The result was [agony](/fragments/rust-brick-walls), with any mistake producing compiler errors so inscrutable that even the darkest days of C++ templates looked good by comparison. Finally, what felt like the longest wait: today's `async`/`.await` was proposed, implemented, and went through a lengthy vetting process before arriving at where it is today. It’s been almost two years since the [original RFC](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/2394).
<commit_msg>Better ordering<commit_after>+++
published_at = 2019-11-23T02:31:54Z
title = "Async, Awaited"
+++

![Seagrape](/assets/images/nanoglyphs/004-async-awaited/seagrape@2x.jpg)

The folding keyboard [from last week's](/nanoglyphs/003-12-factors) been scrapped, but I'm still writing on mobile platforms; this week from a less-exotic-but-more-expensive Apple Magic Keyboard. These weren't designed with mobility in mind, but are surprisingly good at it: compact, good battery life, no butterfly keys. Their Achilles' heel is that they need to be stored in a Ziplock bag lest their veneer of purest white become a muddied black faster than you say "One Infinite Loop".

---

This is Nanoglyph, a software weekly, issue four. It's an in-progress experiment in email-based publishing, disciplined writing, and independent communication less prone to the heavy gravity wells of social media. I’m not slinging it widely, but if you want to help with the prototype, you can [subscribe here](https://nanoglyph-signup.herokuapp.com).

Today’s photo is from a recent dive trip to Honduras. More on that in soon-to-come edition of [_Passages & Glass_](/newsletter) (my other, less software oriented, much less frequent newsletter) if you’re interested in hearing more.

---

## The beginning, at last (#beginning)

Last week, async-await stabilized in Rust. It was a long road to get there. It started early exploration into a variety of concurrency models, including Go-like green threads that were deliberated out in preference of an ultra-minimal runtime. Then came a terrible misadventure in using macros to build async-await as user-space abstractions. The result was [agony](/fragments/rust-brick-walls), with any mistake producing compiler errors so inscrutable that even the darkest days of C++ templates looked good by comparison. Finally, what felt like the longest wait: today's `async`/`.await` was proposed, implemented, and went through a lengthy vetting process before arriving at where it is today. It’s been almost two years since the [original RFC](https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/2394).

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