3 ms·
Correct, but python (or haskell or java or whatever) running on top of WASM would, and there are plans to integrate WASM with the other GC's in the browser, how
by zengid 10y ago
Correct, but python (or haskell or java or whatever) running on top of WASM would, and there are plans to integrate WASM with the other GC's in the browser, however:
"'compile the VM' strategies increase the size of
distributed code, lose browser devtools integration, can
have cross-language cycle-collection problems and miss
optimizations that require integration with the browser" [1].
My prev comment was speculative, but my point is that its not going to be a piece of cake to just drop another high-level language on-top of WASM and use it as a 'better' scripting language without having to pay some overhead costs, one being GC issues.
[1] https://github.com/WebAssembly/design/blob/master/FAQ.md#is-webassembly-only-for-cc-programmers https://github.com/WebAssembly/design/blob/master/FAQ.md#is-...
- weberc2 10y agoI don't know what is meant by "there are plans to integrate WASM with the other GC's in the browser". Is the idea that the browser runs a GC for DOM elements that is separate from the JS VM GC? I wonder if they could follow a model like operating system resources (e.g., file handles) where the process is responsible for managing the resource lifetimes. This would make resource management trivial, and running (for example) Python on WASM would simply mean emitting WASM instructions instead of x86. Of course, lots of other problems remain, for example, downloading an entire runtime or "putting Python on WASM isn't going to magically make it fast". But I don't think the GC should be a particularly large challenge.