在JavaScript的世界中，所有代码都是单线程执行的。

JavaScript的所有网络操作，浏览器事件，都必须是异步执行：

function callback() {
    console.log('Done');
}
console.log('before setTimeout()');
setTimeout(callback, 1000); // 1秒钟后调用callback函数
console.log('after setTimeout()');

AJAX就是典型的异步操作

request.onreadystatechange = function () {
    if (request.readyState === 4) {
        if (request.status === 200) {
            return success(request.responseText);
        } else {
            return fail(request.status);
        }
    }
}

更好的写法

var ajax = ajaxGet('http://...');
ajax.ifSuccess(success)
    .ifFail(fail);

先统一执行AJAX逻辑，不关心如何处理结果，然后，根据结果是成功还是失败，在将来的某个时候调用success函数或fail函数。

“承诺将来会执行”的对象在JavaScript中称为Promise对象。（ES6）

例子

执行函数

function test(resolve, reject) {
    var timeOut = Math.random() * 2;
    log('set timeout to: ' + timeOut + ' seconds.');
    setTimeout(function () {
        if (timeOut < 1) {
            log('call resolve()...');
            resolve('200 OK');
        }
        else {
            log('call reject()...');
            reject('timeout in ' + timeOut + ' seconds.');
        }
    }, timeOut * 1000);
}

var p1 = new Promise(test);
var p2 = p1.then(function (result) {
    console.log('成功：' + result);
});
var p3 = p2.catch(function (reason) {
    console.log('失败：' + reason);
});

// 如果成功，执行这个函数：
p1.then(function (result) {
    console.log('成功：' + result);
});

p2.catch(function (reason) {
    console.log('失败：' + reason);
});

简化为

new Promise(test).then(function (result) {
    console.log('成功：' + result);
}).catch(function (reason) {
    console.log('失败：' + reason);
});

完整代码

<div id="test-promise-log" style="border: solid 1px #ccc; padding: 1em; margin: 15px 0;">
    <p>Log:</p>
</div>

'use strict';

// 清除log:
var logging = document.getElementById('test-promise-log');
while (logging.children.length > 1) {
    logging.removeChild(logging.children[logging.children.length - 1]);
}

// 输出log到页面:
function log(s) {
    var p = document.createElement('p');
    p.innerHTML = s;
    logging.appendChild(p);
}
new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
    log('start new Promise...');
    var timeOut = Math.random() * 2;
    log('set timeout to: ' + timeOut + ' seconds.');
    setTimeout(function () {
        if (timeOut < 1) {
            log('call resolve()...');
            resolve('200 OK');
        }
        else {
            log('call reject()...');
            reject('timeout in ' + timeOut + ' seconds.');
        }
    }, timeOut * 1000);
}).then(function (r) {
    log('Done: ' + r);
}).catch(function (reason) {
    log('Failed: ' + reason);
});

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