Skills. This allows you to set a variable asyncly, and immediately get on with it, and not have to worry about race conditions.
Example:
# without Asyncf
x = (1..12402).inject(1,:*)
y = (1..18320).inject(1,:*)
puts x * y
# the obvious problem with that:
# x is computed first, y is computed after, then we x * y.
# that takes unnecessary time. y is independent of x, so why execute it after?
# threads can be difficult to manage though, because of race conditions.
# well, Asyncf makes it easy!
x = Asyncf.new { (1..12402).inject(1,:*) }
y = Asyncf.new { (1..18320).inject(1,:*) }
puts x * y
# here, x and y will be calculated in parallel,
# and x * y will block until both are solved. but you could even say this:
x = Asyncf.new { Math.sqrt(2**48) }
y = Asyncf.new { Math.sqrt(2**96) }
z = Asyncf.new { Math.sqrt(x**y) }
puts x * y * z
# the order of execution: x & y → z → puts
This also serves as a preview of how awesome an async paradigm would be. In which, things are executed in an order automatically calculated by following dependencies.
