http://web.archive.org/web/20160613020936/https://blog.getify.com/not-awaiting-1/

async..await basically a next version of Promises.

A promises version:

  function getOrderDetails(orderID) {
  return db.find( "orders", orderID )
    .then(function(order){
      return db.find( "customers", order.customerID )
        .then(function(customer){
          order.customer = customer;
          return order;
        });
    });
}

getOrderDetails( 1234 )
.then( displayOrder, showError );

Then with async:

  async function getOrderDetails(orderID) {
  var order = await db.find( "orders", orderID );

  var customer = await db.find( "customers", order.customerID );

  order.customer = customer;
  return order;
}

getOrderDetails( 1234 )
.then( displayOrder, showError );

The syntax is very similar to the generators pattern:

  function *getOrderDetails(orderID) {
  var order = yield db.find( "orders", orderID );

  var customer = yield db.find( "customers", order.customerID );

  order.customer = customer;
  return order;
}

run( getOrderDetails( 1234 ) )
.then( displayOrder, showError );

The difference is that we need to run (run(..)) the generator function from the "outside", and cannot step over automatically when the yielded promise returns.

await always deals with promises, wrapping a primitive value if necessary