Why is `crypto.subtle.digest` async?

Ethan@programming.dev to Programming@programming.dev – 15 points –

Why is crypto.subtle.digest designed to return a promise?

Every other system I've ever worked with has the signature hash(bytes) => bytes, yet whatever committee designed the Subtle Crypto API decided that the browser version should return a promise. Why? I've looked around but I've never found any discussion on the motivation behind that.

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Thus insisting on any other way is a major flaw in the developer not the language.

I mean, I understand the idea, but this is a pretty asshole way to frame it. I don’t think I deserve that, and certainly OP doesn’t deserve that.

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