Using setInterval() to do simplistic continuous polling

Question

For a simple webapp that needs to refresh parts of data presented to the user in set intervals, are there any downsides to just using setInterval() to get a JSON from an end

Answer 1

You can do just like this:

var i = 0, loop_length = 50, loop_speed = 100;

function loop(){
    i+= 1; 
    /* Here is your code. Balabala...*/
    if (i===loop_length) clearInterval(handler);
}

var handler = setInterval(loop, loop_speed);