Node.js Design Patterns - Third Edition

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Asynchronous Control Flow Patterns with Callbacks

Moving from a synchronous programming style to a platform such as Node.js, where continuation-passing style (CPS) and asynchronous APIs are the norm, can be frustrating. Asynchronous code can make it hard to predict the order in which statements are executed. Simple problems such as iterating over a set of files, executing tasks in sequence, or waiting for a set of operations to complete require the developer to take on new approaches and techniques just to avoid ending up writing inefficient and unreadable code. When using callbacks to deal with asynchronous control flow, the most common mistake is to fall into the trap of callback hell and see the code growing horizontally, rather than vertically, ...