How can I force the browser to redraw while my script is doing some heavy processing?
css, dom, html, javascript
Solution
The browser is single threaded. While the script is running, the browser can't do anything else. If you want to do something like a progress meter, you have to use `setTimeout()`, or `setInterval()`, and break your task down into smaller chunks that get run on an interval. This leaves gaps in between the script runs, giving control back to the browser, where the browser can redraw.
Problem
I am using the `innerHTML` property to modify a `DIV` dynamically, to report on a process that takes a few seconds to finish. The problem is that on Firefox the page is not actually re-rendered to reflect that change until after the script has finished. This makes the app feel sluggish. Is there a way to make sure that changes to the HTML show up immediately, even if more scripts are running?