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What's the point if you can't interact with the DOM? Almost all examples of webassembly just render to a canvas. Does this mean instead of a normal "native app

What's the point if you can't interact with the DOM? Almost all examples of webassembly just render to a canvas. Does this mean instead of a normal "native app" I'm going to start getting C applications compiled with wasm and distributed in electron? What does this possibly gain the end user?

callahad 10y ago
You're unnecessarily constraining your thinking to the present-day Web. WASM fundamentally expands what's feasible in that domain. For instance, access to the DOM doesn't really matter for game engines like Unity or Unreal, or for lower level libraries like OpenCV, libsass, or libarchive which you might want to use in your web application. No one is arguing that WebAssembly will completely replace JavaScript, especially not right out of the gate, but it will be used to optimize hot code paths within JS apps, as well as allowing robust, efficient, native libraries to be used directly on the Web. This is more about the pie getting larger than it is about WebAssembly hypothetically crowding out JavaScript.
- daurnimator 10y ago
  > For instance, access to the DOM doesn't really matter for game engines like Unity or Unreal My point was who wants these to be in the browser? I mean they're cool as demos, but I don't see the use. Is it just people using web browsers as the content delivery platform instead of e.g. Steam?
  - pdkl95 10y ago
    > who wants these to be in the browser Anybody that resents the user having ultimate control over the User Agent. A game in e.g. the Unity engine isn't important. Instead, there are a lot of people that would love to replace their (easily adblockable) web page with a small opaque binary that contains freetype, custom layout/UI library, and maybe "drm"-like obfuscation. You don't need the DOM if you intent to render everything yourself. At best, we will see a new wave of "flash intro"[1] style "custom user experience" replacing perfectly usable HTML pages. At worst, this could be the catalyst that replaces what remains of the open web with a locked down "cable tv"-like mess. [1] http://www.zombo.com/ http://www.zombo.com/
    - lomnakkus 10y ago
      That's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it's got any legs for "mostly-content" sites given the inherent unsearchability of that approach.
jlebrech 10y ago
forget the DOM it's a steaming pile. In future we'll be thinking either rasters,vectors or something higher level like ratios and components.

callahad 10y ago

You're unnecessarily constraining your thinking to the present-day Web. WASM fundamentally expands what's feasible in that domain. For instance, access to the DOM doesn't really matter for game engines like Unity or Unreal, or for lower level libraries like OpenCV, libsass, or libarchive which you might want to use in your web application. No one is arguing that WebAssembly will completely replace JavaScript, especially not right out of the gate, but it will be used to optimize hot code paths within JS apps, as well as allowing robust, efficient, native libraries to be used directly on the Web. This is more about the pie getting larger than it is about WebAssembly hypothetically crowding out JavaScript.

daurnimator 10y ago
> For instance, access to the DOM doesn't really matter for game engines like Unity or Unreal My point was who wants these to be in the browser? I mean they're cool as demos, but I don't see the use. Is it just people using web browsers as the content delivery platform instead of e.g. Steam?
- pdkl95 10y ago
  > who wants these to be in the browser Anybody that resents the user having ultimate control over the User Agent. A game in e.g. the Unity engine isn't important. Instead, there are a lot of people that would love to replace their (easily adblockable) web page with a small opaque binary that contains freetype, custom layout/UI library, and maybe "drm"-like obfuscation. You don't need the DOM if you intent to render everything yourself. At best, we will see a new wave of "flash intro"[1] style "custom user experience" replacing perfectly usable HTML pages. At worst, this could be the catalyst that replaces what remains of the open web with a locked down "cable tv"-like mess. [1] http://www.zombo.com/ http://www.zombo.com/
  - lomnakkus 10y ago
    That's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it's got any legs for "mostly-content" sites given the inherent unsearchability of that approach.

jlebrech 10y ago

forget the DOM it's a steaming pile. In future we'll be thinking either rasters,vectors or something higher level like ratios and components.