4 ms·

WASM is angling to break out of the web and become a cross-platform runtime. Its main competition for this space is Java.

• somurzakov 7y ago
  some of the compute workload still needs to be on a backend because of security concerns. if you offload too much stuff on a client-side, then any hacker can mess with it and break your system. for example you can get angular debugger extension for chrome and mess with any online shop that uses this system to "adjust prices" for your cart during checkout
  • sho_hn 7y ago
    Parent meant WASM on the server.
  • woodrowbarlow 7y ago
    the backend could compile to wasm as well.
    • somurzakov 7y ago
      and what is the profit in compiling C/C++/Rust into wasm, instead of native binary code?
      • woodrowbarlow 7y ago
        well this thread was about wasm vs java, but... advantages: sandbox, portability disadvantages: performance, platform integration nobody's saying that server-side wasm will be universally the right choice.
      • yazaddaruvala 7y ago
        Better hosting/deploying/debugging/etc because WASM can be hot-loaded and easily embeddable. e.g. https://www.cloudflare.com/products/cloudflare-workers/ https://www.cloudflare.com/products/cloudflare-workers/
  • zozbot234 7y ago
    This is only a problem for online services, multiplayer games etc. These shouldn't trust client-provided data, including data that comes from WASM. But there are countless applications that can be entirely local, with no need to interact with any sort of "cloud" services. WASM can potentially be quite helpful there
• thesuperbigfrog 7y ago
  Show me a WASM VM that approaches the OpenJDK JVM in maturity and capabilities. Until such a creation comes to be, the OpenJDK JVM will continue to thrive.
  • didibus 7y ago
    Ironically, GraalVM might end up being one of the better WASM VM: https://medium.com/graalvm/announcing-graalwasm-a-webassembly-engine-in-graalvm-25cd0400a7f2 https://medium.com/graalvm/announcing-graalwasm-a-webassembl...
    • thesuperbigfrog 7y ago
      True, but GraalVM is based on the OpenJDK / OracleJDK JVM: "GraalVM Community Editions are based on OpenJDK version 1.8.0_232 and on OpenJDK version 11.0.5. GraalVM Enterprise Editions are based on Oracle Java version 1.8.0_231 and on Oracle Java version 11.0.5." Source: https://www.graalvm.org/docs/getting-started/ https://www.graalvm.org/docs/getting-started/ So, it's still the OpenJDK JVM underneath.
      • didibus 7y ago
        Yup, that's why I said ironically, because it might end up that the best non-web VM for WASM turns out to be the JVM Though V8 is more likely to be what WASM first targets.
• spullara 7y ago
  Without defining a standard set of abstractions around operating system resources it is pretty far from competitive with Java and more closely related to something like LLVM bitcode.
  • saagarjha 7y ago
    LLVM bitcode is not cross platform.
    • spullara 7y ago
      It is very close and with a standardized ABI it can be (that is how it was slightly modified to be used in Google's Portable Native Client). It is much more similar to WASM than Java byte code. https://www.chromium.org/nativeclient/pnacl/introduction-to-portable-native-client https://www.chromium.org/nativeclient/pnacl/introduction-to-...
  • MaulingMonkey 7y ago
    > Without defining a standard set of abstractions around operating system resources That part is called WASI.