Okay, so I appreciate that Javascript is not C# or PHP, but I keep coming back to an issue in Javascript - not with JS itself but my use of it.

I have a function:

function updateStatuses(){

showLoader() //show the 'loader.gif' in the UI

updateStatus('cron1'); //performs an ajax request to get the status of something
updateStatus('cron2');
updateStatus('cron3');
updateStatus('cronEmail');
updateStatus('cronHourly');
updateStatus('cronDaily');

hideLoader(); //hide the 'loader.gif' in the UI

}

Thing is, owing to Javascript's burning desire to jump ahead in the code, the loader never appears because the 'hideLoader' function runs straight after.

How can I fix this? Or in other words, how can I make a javascript function execute in the order I write it on the page...