html_url,issue_url,id,node_id,user,created_at,updated_at,author_association,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,issue
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1784#issuecomment-367806166,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1784,367806166,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDM2NzgwNjE2Ng==,1217238,2018-02-22T20:08:46Z,2018-02-22T20:08:46Z,MEMBER,"`sync=False` is a private, undocumented API. I think it's only found on the internal `to_netcdf` function in `xarray.backends.api`, not the `to_netcdf` method.

Currently, `to_netcdf()` will either return:
- `None` if a path or file-like object was passed to `to_netcdf()`.
- `bytes` representing the file's data if no path or file was provided.

In either case I think it could make sense to optionally replace the return value with a dask delayed object, which in turn evaluates to either `None` or `bytes` when computed.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,282178751
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1784#issuecomment-367166682,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1784,367166682,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDM2NzE2NjY4Mg==,2443309,2018-02-21T00:10:04Z,2018-02-21T00:10:04Z,MEMBER,"> What does ds.to_netcdf(...) usually return?

If `sync == False` the store is returned, otherwise nothing is returned.

> The term future, when used in a Dask context, generally refers to something that is off computing asynchronously somewhere, rather than a token that holds onto a yet-to-be-submitted lazy graph.

Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't aware of that distinction but it does make sense. 

> What is store in this case? 

A `store` is `AbstractWritableDataStore`, basically a wrapper class to allow us to read/write to various fileformats with various APIs under a common interface. Notably, each `store` has a `writer` attribute with a `sync` method that calls `dask.array.store`. 

----

Another way to do this would be to have user code interact with the sync method directly:

```Python
store = ds.to_netcdf('file.nc', sync=False)

# store.sync calls store.writer.sync() which calls dask.array.sync
delayed_things = store.sync(compute=False) 
```

This has the advantage of keeping the `to_netcdf` method a bit cleaner but does expose the `AbstractWritableDataStore` to user code which is typically not a public API object. ","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,282178751
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1784#issuecomment-367163589,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1784,367163589,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDM2NzE2MzU4OQ==,306380,2018-02-20T23:55:25Z,2018-02-20T23:55:25Z,MEMBER,"The term future, when used in a Dask context, generally refers to something that is off computing asynchronously somewhere, rather than a token that holds onto a yet-to-be-submitted lazy graph.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,282178751
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1784#issuecomment-367163456,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1784,367163456,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDM2NzE2MzQ1Ng==,306380,2018-02-20T23:54:46Z,2018-02-20T23:54:46Z,MEMBER,"What does `ds.to_netcdf(...)` usually return?  Typically when we specify `compute=False` we usually return a dask-like thing, often a dask.delayed object that evaluates to what *would* have been computed normally.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,282178751
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1784#issuecomment-367162456,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1784,367162456,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDM2NzE2MjQ1Ng==,2443309,2018-02-20T23:49:41Z,2018-02-20T23:49:41Z,MEMBER,"@shoyer - Do you have thoughts on how this feature would present to the user? In #1811, I have added the `compute` keyword argument to `to_netcdf` and `to_zarr` and put a `futures` attribute on each store. So the workflow there would be something like:

```Python
store = ds.to_netcdf('file.nc', compute=False)

dask.compute(store.futures)
```

Before I spend too much time on #1811, I want to get some buy in on the API for this feature. ","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,282178751
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1784#issuecomment-351785902,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1784,351785902,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDM1MTc4NTkwMg==,1217238,2017-12-14T17:48:48Z,2017-12-14T17:48:48Z,MEMBER,"Yes, this sounds like a natural improvement to me!","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,282178751