5 ms·

It seems like if you replace WebAssembly with JavaScript in this comment it makes just as much sense. What is different about WebAssembly?

JohnFen 7y ago
WebAssembly expands on the ability to do client-side stuff and makes it more accessible, so my fear is that it will make it more common. That's pretty much the entire difference. It's a difference of degree more than of kind. As I said, Javascript is making much of the web inaccessible to me, and WebAssembly, if it becomes popular, will only accelerate this loss.
- ficklepickle 7y ago
  I wonder how feasible a rendering proxy would be. It would run the JS in a simulated browser environment and return the HTML. Interactivity would be tricky, but static HTML is better than a blank page. Edit: Found something very similar, but it targets legacy browsers using clickable image maps rather than privacy/security. https://github.com/tenox7/wrp https://github.com/tenox7/wrp
kevingadd 7y ago
WebAssembly adds new functionality to the browser runtime environment that isn't available to regular JavaScript. It was originally 1:1 with asm.js/JS but that stopped being true relatively quick.
- notriddle 7y ago
  It's faster. That's literally it. There aren't any new I/O facilities.
  - kevingadd 7y ago
    A few examples of things it adds that are not widely available in JS (if at all, or requiring awkward hacks/hints in JS), off the top of my head: int64 uint32 popcnt copysign reinterpret_cast equivalent (the js hack for this is abysmal) pthreads SIMD AOT compilation To be fair, it's been a while since I was last one of the authors of the webassembly spec, so I could be missing some things.
    - Bombthecat 7y ago
      Could ads be served with web assembly?
      - kevingadd 7y ago
        Yes, though I don't know if it makes sense to do it for any reason other than hiding from ad blockers.
        Bombthecat 7y ago
        Well, for some it is the only reason needed...
adrr 7y ago
WebAssembly allows allocation of memory and exposes a huge threat surface. We can't even protect the current APIs and these are being exploited by sovereign nations to oppress people like the Uyghurs. How about we focus on making the sandboxes stronger instead of building out things like WebGL and WebAssembly.

JohnFen 7y ago

WebAssembly expands on the ability to do client-side stuff and makes it more accessible, so my fear is that it will make it more common. That's pretty much the entire difference. It's a difference of degree more than of kind. As I said, Javascript is making much of the web inaccessible to me, and WebAssembly, if it becomes popular, will only accelerate this loss.

ficklepickle 7y ago
I wonder how feasible a rendering proxy would be. It would run the JS in a simulated browser environment and return the HTML. Interactivity would be tricky, but static HTML is better than a blank page. Edit: Found something very similar, but it targets legacy browsers using clickable image maps rather than privacy/security. https://github.com/tenox7/wrp https://github.com/tenox7/wrp

kevingadd 7y ago

WebAssembly adds new functionality to the browser runtime environment that isn't available to regular JavaScript. It was originally 1:1 with asm.js/JS but that stopped being true relatively quick.

notriddle 7y ago
It's faster. That's literally it. There aren't any new I/O facilities.
- kevingadd 7y ago
  A few examples of things it adds that are not widely available in JS (if at all, or requiring awkward hacks/hints in JS), off the top of my head: int64 uint32 popcnt copysign reinterpret_cast equivalent (the js hack for this is abysmal) pthreads SIMD AOT compilation To be fair, it's been a while since I was last one of the authors of the webassembly spec, so I could be missing some things.
  - Bombthecat 7y ago
    Could ads be served with web assembly?
    - kevingadd 7y ago
      Yes, though I don't know if it makes sense to do it for any reason other than hiding from ad blockers.
      - Bombthecat 7y ago
        Well, for some it is the only reason needed...

adrr 7y ago

WebAssembly allows allocation of memory and exposes a huge threat surface. We can't even protect the current APIs and these are being exploited by sovereign nations to oppress people like the Uyghurs. How about we focus on making the sandboxes stronger instead of building out things like WebGL and WebAssembly.