DOM refresh on long running function

Question

I have a button which runs a long running function when it\'s clicked. Now, while the function is running, I want to change the button text, but I\'m having problems in some

Answer 1

As of 2019 one uses double requesAnimationFrame to skip a frame instead of creating a race condition using setTimeout.

function doRun() {
    document.getElementById('app').innerHTML = 'Processing JS...';
    requestAnimationFrame(() =>
    requestAnimationFrame(function(){
         //blocks render
         confirm('Heavy load done') 
         document.getElementById('app').innerHTML = 'Processing JS... done';
    }))
}
doRun()

---

As an usage example think of calculating pi using Monte Carlo in an endless loop:

using for loop to mock while(true) - as this breaks the page

function* piMonteCarlo(r = 5, yield_cycle = 10000){

  let total = 0, hits = 0, x=0, y=0, rsqrd = Math.pow(r, 2);
  
  while(true){
  
     total++;
     if(total === Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER){
      break;
     }
     x = Math.random() * r * 2 - r;
     y = Math.random() * r * 2 - r;
     
     (Math.pow(x,2) + Math.pow(y,2) < rsqrd) && hits++;
     
     if(total % yield_cycle === 0){
      yield 4 * hits / total
     }
  }
}

let pi_gen = piMonteCarlo(5, 1000), pi = 3;

for(let i = 0; i < 1000; i++){
// mocks
// while(true){
// basically last value will be rendered only
  pi = pi_gen.next().value
  console.log(pi)
  document.getElementById('app').innerHTML = "PI: " + pi
}

And now think about using requestAnimationFrame for updates in between ;)

function* piMonteCarlo(r = 5, yield_cycle = 10000){

  let total = 0, hits = 0, x=0, y=0, rsqrd = Math.pow(r, 2);
  
  while(true){
  
     total++;
     if(total === Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER){
      break;
     }
     x = Math.random() * r * 2 - r;
     y = Math.random() * r * 2 - r;
     
     (Math.pow(x,2) + Math.pow(y,2) < rsqrd) && hits++;
     
     if(total % yield_cycle === 0){
      yield 4 * hits / total
     }
  }
}

let pi_gen = piMonteCarlo(5, 1000), pi = 3;


function rAFLoop(calculate){

  return new Promise(resolve => {
    requestAnimationFrame( () => {
    requestAnimationFrame(() => {
      typeof calculate === "function" && calculate()
      resolve()
    })
    })
  })
}
let stopped = false
async function piDOM(){
  while(stopped==false){
    await rAFLoop(() => {
      pi = pi_gen.next().value
      console.log(pi)
      document.getElementById('app').innerHTML = "PI: " + pi
    })
  }
}
function stop(){
  stopped = true;
}
function start(){
  if(stopped){
    stopped = false
    piDOM()
  }
}
piDOM()

Stop
start