Understanding that the Angular documents call checking the $$phase an anti-pattern, I tried to get $timeout and _.defer to work.
The timeout and deferred methods create a flash of unparsed {{myVar}} content in the dom like a FOUT. For me this was not acceptable. It leaves me without much to be told dogmatically that something is a hack, and not have a suitable alternative.
The only thing that works every time is:
if(scope.$$phase !== '$digest'){ scope.$digest() }.
I don't understand the danger of this method, or why it's described as a hack by people in the comments and the angular team. The command seems precise and easy to read:
"Do the digest unless one is already happening"
In CoffeeScript it's even prettier:
scope.$digest() unless scope.$$phase is '$digest'
What's the issue with this? Is there an alternative that won't create a FOUT? $safeApply looks fine but uses the $$phase inspection method, too.