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This is a big reason that I think wasm is a step in the wrong direction. It's basically nudging people into making things even more opaque. How, for example, w

by ori_b 6y ago

This is a big reason that I think wasm is a step in the wrong direction. It's basically nudging people into making things even more opaque. How, for example, would you go about blocking ads in this kind of app?

jakogut 6y ago
> This is a big reason that I think wasm is a step in the wrong direction. It's basically nudging people into making things even more opaque. WebAssembly is a tool, not a technique. It's not meant to replace JavaScript or the DOM, it's meant to supplement it in projects where it makes sense. Is it any more opaque than any other transpiled and minified SPA that in no way resembles anything remotely human readable anymore? I don't consider this a valid criticism of WASM. > How, for example, would you go about blocking ads in this kind of app? Probably the same way it's done now, by blocking requests to blacklisted domains known for hosting advertisements.
jelder 6y ago
If it’s actually harder to block ads in apps built like this, that’s a great reason for site owners to choose wasm.
- ori_b 6y ago
  And a great reason for users to resist it.
- AnyTimeTraveler 6y ago
  You can still use normal adblockers with this. Most of them just have a blacklist of domains that they block the requests for. Wasm won't change anything about that. The requests are still exactly the same as in JS, so blocking will work exactly the same.
AgentME 6y ago
Sites using WebAssembly still need to use the DOM just like JS sites, and be equally ad-blockable. Technically a site could render everything as an opaque image in a canvas element, which would be hard to do ad-blocking on, but there's nothing about WebAssembly inherently connected to canvas elements. Whether a site uses WebAssembly and whether it puts all its contents in a canvas element are orthogonal issues. JS sites are equally capable of putting all their content in canvas elements, and very few of them do.
thorum 6y ago
It's true that WebAssembly makes web apps more opaque, since it's a compiled binary vs JavaScript code. However, ad blocking should the same as for JavaScript single page apps. The Rust code in this article hooks into JavaScript APIs to create a standard webpage, using standard HTML elements and updating the DOM - just like a JS app would.

by ori_b 6y ago

jakogut 6y ago

> This is a big reason that I think wasm is a step in the wrong direction. It's basically nudging people into making things even more opaque. WebAssembly is a tool, not a technique. It's not meant to replace JavaScript or the DOM, it's meant to supplement it in projects where it makes sense. Is it any more opaque than any other transpiled and minified SPA that in no way resembles anything remotely human readable anymore? I don't consider this a valid criticism of WASM. > How, for example, would you go about blocking ads in this kind of app? Probably the same way it's done now, by blocking requests to blacklisted domains known for hosting advertisements.

jelder 6y ago

If it’s actually harder to block ads in apps built like this, that’s a great reason for site owners to choose wasm.

ori_b 6y ago
And a great reason for users to resist it.
AnyTimeTraveler 6y ago
You can still use normal adblockers with this. Most of them just have a blacklist of domains that they block the requests for. Wasm won't change anything about that. The requests are still exactly the same as in JS, so blocking will work exactly the same.

AgentME 6y ago

Sites using WebAssembly still need to use the DOM just like JS sites, and be equally ad-blockable. Technically a site could render everything as an opaque image in a canvas element, which would be hard to do ad-blocking on, but there's nothing about WebAssembly inherently connected to canvas elements. Whether a site uses WebAssembly and whether it puts all its contents in a canvas element are orthogonal issues. JS sites are equally capable of putting all their content in canvas elements, and very few of them do.

thorum 6y ago

It's true that WebAssembly makes web apps more opaque, since it's a compiled binary vs JavaScript code. However, ad blocking should the same as for JavaScript single page apps. The Rust code in this article hooks into JavaScript APIs to create a standard webpage, using standard HTML elements and updating the DOM - just like a JS app would.