Routines to Coroutines: How Kotlin Revolutionized Asynchronous Programming

The Basics: Main Routine and Subroutines

In traditional programming, execution flow is structured around a main routine (the entry point of the program) and subroutines (helper functions that perform specific tasks).

What is a Main Routine?

The main routine (often called main()) is:

• The entry point of every program.
• The first function that executes when you run your code.
• Responsible for orchestrating the program’s workflow.
• In Kotlin/Java/C-style languages, it looks like this:

fun main() {
    // Program starts executing here
    first()
    second()
}

Key characteristics:

1. Mandatory — Every executable program must have one
2. Parent function — Calls other subroutines
3. Lifecycle controller — Determines the order of operations

What are Subroutines?

Subroutines (also called functions/methods) are:

• Reusable blocks of code that perform specific tasks
• Called by the main routine or other subroutines
• Modularize code into logical units

fun first() {
    // Does task A
}

fun second() {
    // Does task B
}

Key characteristics:

1. Single Responsibility — Each should do one thing well
2. Callable — Can be invoked multiple times
3. Stack-based — Follows Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) execution

fun main() {
    first() //subroutine
    second() //subroutine
}

fun first() {
    var first = 1
    while (true) {
        println("first: ${first++}")
    }
}

fun second() {
    var second = 1
    while (true) {
        println("second: ${second++}")
    }
}

What actually happens:

1. Program launches → main() starts executing
2. main() calls first() → execution jumps to first()
3. first() enters infinite loop → never returns
4. second() never gets called because control never returns to main()

The Critical Limitation

This demonstrates a fundamental programming constraint:

• Subroutines are blocking — The caller waits until completion
• No concurrency — Only one function executes at any moment
• Order-dependent — Strict sequential execution

Visualizing the Call Stack

Call Stack          State
-----------        --------
                    Program starts
main()             Calls first()
first()            Enters loop
[stack frozen]     first() never returns

This blocking behavior is exactly what coroutines solve by introducing:

• Suspendable functions
• Non-blocking operations
• Concurrent execution

In our previous example with traditional subroutines, we saw how first()'s infinite loop completely blocked execution of second(). Now let's examine how coroutines revolutionize this behavior:

fun main(): Unit = runBlocking {
    launch { first() }  // coroutine 1
    launch { second() } // coroutine 2
}

suspend fun first() {
    var first = 1
    while (true) {
        println("first: ${first++}")
        delay(2000) // Suspension point
    }
}

suspend fun second() {
    var second = 1
    while (true) {
        println("second: ${second++}")
        delay(1000) // Suspension point
    }
}

Key Differences from Subroutines

1. Non-Blocking Concurrent Execution

• Both functions now run concurrently instead of sequentially
• Output will interleave: “second” prints twice as often as “first”
• Neither function blocks the other

2. The Magic of Suspension Points

• delay() is a suspension function that pauses execution without blocking
• When encountered, the coroutine:
• Yields the thread
• Schedules resumption
• Allows other coroutines to run

3. Structured Concurrency

• runBlocking creates a coroutine scope
• launch starts new coroutines as children of this scope
• All coroutines are automatically cancelled when the scope completes

How This Works Internally

Coroutine Execution Timeline

Time (ms) | Coroutine 1 (first)      | Coroutine 2 (second)
----------|--------------------------|----------------------
0         | Prints "first: 1"        | 
          | Suspends for 2000ms      | Prints "second: 1"
          |                          | Suspends for 1000ms
1000      |                          | Resumes, prints "second: 2"
          |                          | Suspends for 1000ms
2000      | Resumes, prints "first: 2"|
          | Suspends for 2000ms      | Prints "second: 3"
3000      |                          | Resumes, prints "second: 4"
...       | ...                      | ...

Why This Matters

1. Resource Efficiency

• Traditional threads: ~1MB stack per thread
• Coroutines: ~50 bytes per suspended coroutine

2. Simplified Concurrency

• No callback hell
• Sequential-looking code with asynchronous execution

3. Responsive Applications

• Never blocks the main thread
• Easy to implement features like:
• Parallel network requests
• Animations with delays
• Background processing

Visual Comparison

Subroutine Execution

main()
└── first() (runs forever)
    └── second() (never reached)

Coroutine Execution

runBlocking
├── launch { first() } (suspends/resumes)
└── launch { second() } (suspends/resumes)

Conclusion

This demonstrates the paradigm shift from linear, blocking execution to flexible, non-blocking concurrency. By leveraging suspension points and structured concurrency, coroutines enable efficient multitasking without sacrificing code clarity. This evolution from rigid subroutine execution to flexible coroutines represents a fundamental advancement in asynchronous programming.

Hope you liked this article. Happy Coding!!