Base changes

[lovasoa]

First PR to integrate @rdbeach work

See #31

[lovasoa]

The switch to async was made on purpose to make the code more readable. You reverted it in
b35e020. Is there a reason in particular not to use async ?

[finnboeger]

I had a look through the code again and don't see any particular necessity for the change. I believe we should be able to keep it as async/await.

[lovasoa]

Thank you !