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> If you knew about [x], there's nothing surprising about [y] You are technically correct, but at the same time I do think this way of framing it is selling Ga

> If you knew about [x], there's nothing surprising about [y] You are technically correct, but at the same time I do think this way of framing it is selling Gary Bernhardt a little bit short. There is still an uncanny part in knowing all the right things at the right time to predict the future.

thaumasiotes 7y ago
"The future will be just like the past, but with a different name". I guess it's just as accurate when Gary Bernhardt says it as when everyone else says it. It's not exactly a theme that's gone overlooked before. But still... executing bytecode in the browser goes way, way, way, way back.
- jchw 7y ago
  It’s not just executing code in the browser. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the video but its more about JavaScript becoming the universal assembly language. I think at least that aspect is wrong because Wasm came into existence. But ignoring that detail and subbing in Wasm for JS, it’s uncanny.
  - dwohnitmok 7y ago
    It's even more uncanny than that. The talk hypothesized that JavaScript will not be the universal assembly language but rather a lower level language (or more accurately an OS-like system I suppose as the talk presents it), "Metal," would be. In that respect it predicted WebAssembly on the nose.
  - sp332 7y ago
    In December that same year, the Internet Archive started letting people boot and run MS-DOS emulators in the browser. And this was well after binfmt_misc has been (ab)used with JS engines to execute JS like a native program. A couple years earlier, NetBSD device drivers were running in the browser, and JS-engine-as-hypervisor was an explicit, if distant, goal. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757581 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757581
  - Ajedi32 7y ago
    I personally see WASM as a natural descendant of ASM.js, so in that sense I'd say its not really wrong, just missing a step. I don't know that it's necessarily uncanny though either; ASM.js was already a thing back when that presentation was given, so the existence of WASM isn't really surprising. The real central "prediction" of that talk wasn't WASM, it was METAL, which hasn't quite taken off yet. (The idea is out there[0], but so far mostly just as a self-fulfilling prophecy). [0]: https://github.com/lastmjs/wasm-metal https://github.com/lastmjs/wasm-metal

thaumasiotes 7y ago

"The future will be just like the past, but with a different name". I guess it's just as accurate when Gary Bernhardt says it as when everyone else says it. It's not exactly a theme that's gone overlooked before. But still... executing bytecode in the browser goes way, way, way, way back.

jchw 7y ago
It’s not just executing code in the browser. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the video but its more about JavaScript becoming the universal assembly language. I think at least that aspect is wrong because Wasm came into existence. But ignoring that detail and subbing in Wasm for JS, it’s uncanny.
- dwohnitmok 7y ago
  It's even more uncanny than that. The talk hypothesized that JavaScript will not be the universal assembly language but rather a lower level language (or more accurately an OS-like system I suppose as the talk presents it), "Metal," would be. In that respect it predicted WebAssembly on the nose.
- sp332 7y ago
  In December that same year, the Internet Archive started letting people boot and run MS-DOS emulators in the browser. And this was well after binfmt_misc has been (ab)used with JS engines to execute JS like a native program. A couple years earlier, NetBSD device drivers were running in the browser, and JS-engine-as-hypervisor was an explicit, if distant, goal. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757581 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4757581
- Ajedi32 7y ago
  I personally see WASM as a natural descendant of ASM.js, so in that sense I'd say its not really wrong, just missing a step. I don't know that it's necessarily uncanny though either; ASM.js was already a thing back when that presentation was given, so the existence of WASM isn't really surprising. The real central "prediction" of that talk wasn't WASM, it was METAL, which hasn't quite taken off yet. (The idea is out there[0], but so far mostly just as a self-fulfilling prophecy). [0]: https://github.com/lastmjs/wasm-metal https://github.com/lastmjs/wasm-metal