jam

JAM

JAM it together like this:

jam(function() { doYourThing(); this(); })
  (function() { doOtherThingWithCallback(this); })
  (function() { doOtherThingWithCallbackArgs(this); })
  (function(result) { doNodeJsStuff(this); })
  (function(err, result) { setTimeout(this, 3000); })
  (function() { /* yay! we're done! */ });

That is, the this object is the next function to be called. Use this when you would normally pass a callback.

You can even nest JAMs inside each other:

jam(function() { jam(function() { jam(function() { ....

And the JAM chain would still execute correctly :)

And oh, you know what? You can even pass JAMs around! Try the test-passing.js example to see what I mean :)

WHY ?

Short answer: Because none of the existing ones are simple enough for my taste.

Yeah, I know there're tons of other continuation helpers out there already but there really isn't one where you could quickly just type-in the list of stuff to do and be done with it without worrying about forgetting to close the list with a parenthesis or forgetting to add a comma. And yeah, IMO it is wayyy easier to just add a (function() { }) block at the end because that's what you're usually doing all the time anyway taking care of all those JS variable scopes. And it is easier to copy/paste/reorder as well.

Another thing is that, most of them isn't very monadic. Yes, you can chain them. But then you can't pass those chains around or dynamically modify them except maybe using a few arguments trick/utils to help you. That has limited my ability to program and think somewhat especially since you should be thinking a lot about asynchronous-ness and continuations when working on node.js (that's the whole point of the platform, ain't it?)

So I decided, WTH, I could just write one.

And you gotta admit, writing all these stuff is just god damned fun! XD