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So now every website will require enabled WebAssembly to run god knows what code and I will have to install an anti-virus for my browser? No thanks. JS might be

by ttt0 6y ago

So now every website will require enabled WebAssembly to run god knows what code and I will have to install an anti-virus for my browser? No thanks. JS might be a bad language, but it's even worse in how it's abused with frameworks, tracking, etc for no good reason. edit: funny how I can discuss extremely controversial political topics here and never have any of my comments killed, but having a negative opinion about wasm and JS frameworks is just a step too far lol.

ec109685 6y ago
WASM is still stuck within a highly protected sandbox, so you don't need to run anti-virus software for your browser.
- ttt0 6y ago
  Bitcoin miners?
  - hnuser123456 6y ago
    better than rootkits
  - leppr 6y ago
    ...that run only when the tab is loaded. Non-issue.
dagmx 6y ago
Wasm can't do anything JS couldn't do already.
- ttt0 6y ago
  What JS can do is already bad enough.
- yjbanov 6y ago
  There are a few things that WASM can do that JS can't (at least not now): - Memory management without GC - Unboxed data structures - SIMD - Shared-memory multi-threading - Precompiled snapshots (does not need to be recompiled on page reload)
  - dagmx 6y ago
    I should clarify, in the context of the reply I was referring to security. Wasm is inherently as secure as JavaScript.
  - hajile 6y ago
    Bytecode caching has been a browser feature for years[0] JS has atomics and shared memory arrays which also basically bypass garbage collection [1] JS had working simd.js implementations in both Firefox and Chrome until they were pulled in favor of WASM [0] https://v8.dev/blog/code-caching-for-devs https://v8.dev/blog/code-caching-for-devs [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Atomics https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe... [2] https://github.com/tc39/ecmascript_simd https://github.com/tc39/ecmascript_simd https://blog.mozilla.org/javascript/2015/03/10/state-of-simd-js-performance-in-firefox/ https://blog.mozilla.org/javascript/2015/03/10/state-of-simd... https://01.org/blogs/2014/bringing-simd-javascript https://01.org/blogs/2014/bringing-simd-javascript
- AlchemistCamp 6y ago
  It can do integers.
  - hajile 6y ago
    BigInt landed in ES2020 and has been supported in something like the last 10-20 versions of Chrome and Firefox, so no huge worries about using it (the "current" browser without support is IE11). The `123|0` type hint is also recognized and implemented by most browsers too. It forces a 31-bit integer on most platforms (and can offer a significant performance boosts if you're running a tight algorithm). https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/BigInt https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
anoncake 6y ago
> edit: funny how I can discuss extremely controversial political topics here and never have any of my comments killed, but having a negative opinion about wasm and JS frameworks is just a step too far lol. I'm not surprised. You probably happen to agree with the majority of HN on these topics so the upvotes outweigh the downvotes.

by ttt0 6y ago

ec109685 6y ago

WASM is still stuck within a highly protected sandbox, so you don't need to run anti-virus software for your browser.

ttt0 6y ago
Bitcoin miners?
- hnuser123456 6y ago
  better than rootkits
- leppr 6y ago
  ...that run only when the tab is loaded. Non-issue.

dagmx 6y ago

Wasm can't do anything JS couldn't do already.

ttt0 6y ago
What JS can do is already bad enough.
yjbanov 6y ago
There are a few things that WASM can do that JS can't (at least not now): - Memory management without GC - Unboxed data structures - SIMD - Shared-memory multi-threading - Precompiled snapshots (does not need to be recompiled on page reload)
- dagmx 6y ago
  I should clarify, in the context of the reply I was referring to security. Wasm is inherently as secure as JavaScript.
- hajile 6y ago
  Bytecode caching has been a browser feature for years[0] JS has atomics and shared memory arrays which also basically bypass garbage collection [1] JS had working simd.js implementations in both Firefox and Chrome until they were pulled in favor of WASM [0] https://v8.dev/blog/code-caching-for-devs https://v8.dev/blog/code-caching-for-devs [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Atomics https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe... [2] https://github.com/tc39/ecmascript_simd https://github.com/tc39/ecmascript_simd https://blog.mozilla.org/javascript/2015/03/10/state-of-simd-js-performance-in-firefox/ https://blog.mozilla.org/javascript/2015/03/10/state-of-simd... https://01.org/blogs/2014/bringing-simd-javascript https://01.org/blogs/2014/bringing-simd-javascript
AlchemistCamp 6y ago
It can do integers.
- hajile 6y ago
  BigInt landed in ES2020 and has been supported in something like the last 10-20 versions of Chrome and Firefox, so no huge worries about using it (the "current" browser without support is IE11). The `123|0` type hint is also recognized and implemented by most browsers too. It forces a 31-bit integer on most platforms (and can offer a significant performance boosts if you're running a tight algorithm). https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/BigInt https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...

anoncake 6y ago

> edit: funny how I can discuss extremely controversial political topics here and never have any of my comments killed, but having a negative opinion about wasm and JS frameworks is just a step too far lol. I'm not surprised. You probably happen to agree with the majority of HN on these topics so the upvotes outweigh the downvotes.