Forces the result of a promise to be computed (if necessary) and returns the bare result object. Once evaluated, the result of the promise will be cached. Nested promises will be evaluated together, until the first non-promise result.

If called on a value that is not a promise, it will simply return it.

Schedules a computation to be run asynchronously in a background thread and returns a promise for its result. An attempt to demand the result of the promise will block until the computation finishes.

As with Kernel.promise, this passes the block a promise for its own result. Use wisely.

The promise() function is used together with demand() to implement lazy evaluation. It returns a promise to evaluate the provided block at a future time. Evaluation can be demanded and the block’s result obtained via the demand() function.

Implicit evaluation is also supported: the first message sent to it will demand evaluation, after which that message and any subsequent messages will be forwarded to the result object.

As an aid to circular programming, the block will be passed a promise for its own result when it is evaluated. Be careful not to force that promise during the computation, lest the computation diverge.